February 19, 2017
Member for Callide Jeff Seeney has defended the LNP government’s $495 million “Royalties For Regions” program after it came under attack in State Parliament last week.
“The government is desperate to discredit the Royalties for the Regions program because it knows that it was one of the best things that happened to regional Queensland,” the former Deputy Premier, who administered the program, told Parliament.
“It knows the popularity of this program in regional Queensland and the success of the projects that were delivered.”
Between 2012 and 2015 Royalties for Regions invested in 147 projects across Queensland.
In the South Burnett, four pieces of infrastructure were funded:
- $10 million for overtaking lanes on the D’Aguilar Highway and Brisbane Valley Highway
- $10 million for Kingaroy Wastewater Treatment Plant
- $2 million for the South Burnett Rail Trail, and
- $1.5 million for the upgraded intersection on Kingaroy/Barkers Creek Road, Kingaroy (Swickers intersection)
When the Labor Government took power, Building our Regions was replaced by a $375 million targeted infrastructure fund called “Building Our Regions”.
“It speaks volumes for the Labor Party’s attitude to regional Queensland that it called this a slush fund for regional Queensland,” Mr Seeney said.
“It has called it a crime to invest in regional Queensland.
“The Member for Mulgrave says it is corrupt to invest in regional Queensland, but Royalties for the Regions invested $500 million in badly needed infrastructure right across regional Queensland.
“We built roads. We built roads in places that had wanted roads built for 30 years. The Yeppoon council had tried to get a bypass of its CBD for 30 years and it was built by Royalties for the Regions.
“The Toowoomba ring-road was built by Royalties for the Regions.
“The Kin Kora roundabout caused huge traffic jams in Gladstone — and Gladstone had a member of the government for as long as I can remember — but Royalties for the Regions fixed that problem.
“We built airports: 17 airports across Queensland from Lockhart River in the north to Birdsville in the west and all across Queensland.
“We built 17 airports so that the Flying Doctor and other aeromedical services could get into those communities and evacuate people who were sick … 17 airports, and three of them were in my electorate and somehow or other the government thinks that makes the whole program corrupt.
“It knows that this program was a huge success.
“We built water and sewerage projects right across regional Queensland: in Roma, in Chinchilla, in Baralaba, in Theodore. Many little towns now have water and sewerage services so people can live there …
“Royalties for the Regions is hailed across regional Queensland as the best thing that has happened because it provided infrastructure that the communities wanted – extra money, not money from departmental budgets but extra money to provide the things that regional communities needed.”
