General News
7 July, 2024
Bruce H’way tops priorities
THE RACQ has invited all Queenslanders to help shape its election campaign by voting on what the club should prioritise in its election advocacy.
The 10 wide-ranging priorities have been shortlisted from the club’s core advocacy and business areas and include a focus on cost of living, road safety, public transport, home and energy resilience and planning for growth.
Advocacy general manager Joshua Cooney said two weeks into the poll, ‘Fix the Bruce’ was ranked number one with 21.3 per cent of survey respondents listing it as their top priority.
“The Bruce Highway impacts many lives in Queensland in many ways. It’s the backbone of our economy and a lifeline for our regional communities,” he said.
“Around 750km of this national highway is rated as poor and on average 29 people lose their life on the Bruce each year and more than 360 suffer serious injuries from crashes.
“While we have seen recent additional funding announced for the Bruce, we need a long-term plan and funding commitment to bring it up to scratch with other national highways like the Hume and Pacific.”
Mr Cooney said ‘Plan and build for growth’ currently ranked second in the poll with 18.9 per cent of respondents listing it as their top priority, followed by ‘Give us a fair go on fuel’ with 17.4 per cent.
“We know the lack of long-term strategic planning over decades has led to terrible bottlenecks and congestion issues, particularly in the south east, and Queenslanders are so far prioritising our vision for better transport planning to meet a booming population,” he said.
“RACQ believes we need to fix, finish and extend Brisbane’s outer ring of motorways to take traffic off our local roads and corridors.
“The club also wants to see a long-term strategy to extend public and active transport networks across the state to put more people on bikes, scooters, buses and trains, and fewer in cars.
“In the wake of eye-watering petrol prices in the past few years, we’ve also called for the next state government to set a cap on daily fuel margin increases to help motorists better manage their fuel costs.
“Daily price changes are regulated in Perth, and we don’t believe there is anything stopping the next Queensland Government from intervening in their own way.”
There’s still time to have your say to help shape RACQ’s Queensland election priorities.
Visit: www.racq.com.au/election
