Goodna Bypass deception
Friday, 19 March 2010 16:19
Documents newly obtained under FOI revealed that the Government deceived residents over the proposed Goodna Bypass.
The State Government guaranteed local residents that the project would not be built. Yet in an extraordinary act of dishonesty the documents show that even as the Government was making these unequivocal statements they were secretly planning the project.
Deputy Premier Paul Lucas at the time described the Goodna bypass as ill conceived, the most expensive fix in history, the project that nobody wants and was vitriolic in his condemnation.
The Government even sent the Main Roads Parliamentary Secretary to address hundreds of people at Moggill State School saying that they could stop this project by voting Labor. In March 2007 and again in September of that year Paul Lucas told State Parliament there would be NO Goodna Bypass if a Rudd Government were elected.
Only days after winning the 2007 election, the Federal government committed $200 million to the State in order to advance the project.To this day, neither the State government nor the Rudd government has done any meaningful community consultation with the residents of Moggill and Bellbowrie and it could only be said they have treated local people with contempt.
The Goodna bypass is a proposed federally funded national highway that would link the Warrego Highway to the Logan Motorway.
I have consistently and vehemently opposed the project. It runs for just 9.9 kms at a massive cost of $3½ billion.
I am also outraged that governments would plan such a major project essentially in secret and without any community consultation or information.
Residents have bought and sold properties and built homes based on the State Government’s guarantee.