Liberals' M1 announcement short-changes Logan

22 June 2016

The Turnbull Government's announcement about the M1 today short-changes Logan, underfunds the project and doesn't even guarantee it will go ahead.

If the Liberal National Party really cared about the congestion at the M1-Gateway merge, it would have done something about it already.

In three years and three budgets it has committed zero dollars to upgrading this stretch of freeway, and now it has cobbled something together ten days from an election.

The Liberal National Party announcement leaves a substantial hole in funding the upgrade of the Eight Mile Plains to Springwood stretch of the M1.

This is a short-term political fix to get Bert van Manen through an election, not a plan to get local people and businesses through the traffic.

The best way to ensure the southbound M1-Gateway merge is fixed is to vote for the $168 million plan that Labor put on the table two months ago.

Labor's $168 million plan to ease congestion at the southbound M1-Gateway merge was carefully considered and released well in advance of this election.

Labor has a proud record of investing $312 million in the stretch of the freeway in Logan last time we were in office, because we care about local commuters and businesses.

Bill Shorten, Des Hardman and Jim Chalmers will fix the M1 while Malcolm Turnbull and Bert van Manen dither, play political games, and sell Logan short.