Winston Churchill said “Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war”. It appears Ipswich City Council thinks war, war is better than jaw, jaw.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding has to start putting her plans into action and convince her own council to commit funding towards major infrastructure for the city instead of waging political campaigns against the State and Federal governments.
What have we seen from the second Harding Administration so far, a 5.45 percent increase on your rates bill and a decision to rip up the popular boardwalks at River Heart Parklands which council allowed to remain closed since the 2022 floods.
Ipswich City Council today launched a political campaign titled “We Can’t Wait” attacking the State and Federal governments.
Political attacks from the LNP Mayor do not amount to political advocacy. A delegation from Somerset Regional Council met with me in Canberra as part of their advocacy at the Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly and the Regional Cooperation and Development Forum held in Canberra last week. I arranged meetings with ministers and ministerial advisors for them as I did for representatives from South Burnett and Southern Downs councils which are not in my electorate. Ipswich Council was nowhere to be seen.
If Ipswich City Council wants funding, how about meeting with Federal and State MPs before launching costly, ratepayer-funded political campaigns against the Federal and State governments.
The Albanese Labor Government’s 2024 Federal Budget delivered $134.5 million for the Warrego Highway – Mount Crosby Road Interchange upgrade; $42.5 million to fix the Bremer River Bridge; and an additional $1.5 million for the Cunningham Highway – Safety Package.
The Federal Government has delivered $12.5 million for planning works for the next stage of the Ipswich Motorway.
Both the Federal Government and Queensland Government are contributing $3.4 million each to undertake detailed investigations into the Ipswich to Springfield public transport corridor.
Ipswich City Council has not shown me their Federal and State-funded Detailed Business Case for I2S.
I think a second river crossing in Ipswich Central has merit and would improve congestion and productivity, as well as flood resilience. But it’s really up to Ipswich City Council to progress what would be a council asset and Ipswich City Council would need to prepare a detailed business case to get it shovel-ready. The Ipswich Council has not done what it needs to do to get federal and/or state funding on such a project.
In 2020, it was estimated the project would cost about $372 million, so it would be expensive, not to mention very disruptive to local residents.
