weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

2560 Questions Without Notice 23 Aug 2005
Mr BEATTIE: I know how genuine the member for Nicklin is about this issue. I know that
tomorrow night’s debate will be important. Any government needs caucus solidarity. That means that the
caucus will take a decision and they will vote accordingly in relation to the member’s private member’s
bill. The issues raised in it are very serious. I put on a recent COAG agenda and raised with the Prime
Minister the need for changes in federal government legislation which we believe is the answer to this.
We do not believe that we can resolve this at the state level. I think that is absolutely essential.
If I recall correctly—and I am happy to check this for the member Nicklin because I know he is
genuine about this issue—this issue was referred off to the relevant ministers to examine what
recommendations they would make in relation to the funding of grandparents who raise their
grandchildren.
Mr Johnson: There is a bill before the House.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a bill before the House. I ask the Premier to be careful with his
comments.
Mr BEATTIE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I appreciate any guidance. I am trying to answer the
honourable member’s question. Let me talk about COAG because that is broader than the bill and that
is the way through this. At that COAG discussion there was support for the appropriate funding of
grandparents who raise their grandchildren, but it has disappeared into the ether since then.
I am happy to say to the member that I will again write to the Prime Minister to remind him of the
COAG decision and to try to get the various ministers to respond to supporting grandparents who take
on that responsibility. They do a good job. Without wishing to be melodramatic, I have a lot of affinity
with this argument. I was raised by my own grandmother. I know exactly what it means. Grandparents
are often the ones who are literally left carrying the baby. I have seen tragic cases, for example, of drug
affected mothers who can no longer care for their children and those children being raised by
grandparents.
The difficulty at a state level is that we require, if I remember correctly, those children to be taken
into some form of care. Grandparents do not like that because they believe that they should be given the
responsibility for care without that necessary process being followed. Once children come into state
care we have responsibilities—for example, to ensure that they are not abused sexually or physically
and so on. Many grandparents, quite rightly, resent that because these children are their grandchildren.
Therefore, the only way that we can resolve this properly is to get the Commonwealth to pay the
grandparents an appropriate allowance so that they can get on with the job of being a grandparent and
carer. That is the only way it can be done. It does not fit in at the state level. It does not work that way.
That is why we think there should be a variation in federal allowances. I respect the member’s position
on this, but, of course, I expect my team to vote in accordance with the caucus decision.
Federal Road Funding
Mrs ATTWOOD: My question is to Minister for Transport and Main Roads. In view of the millions
of dollars being ripped off by the Commonwealth government in petrol taxes, is the Howard government
delivering a fair share of federal road funding to Queensland?
Mr LUCAS: I thank the honourable member for her question. It was very instructive reading the
Courier-Mail this morning to see the Liberal Party bash-up, get-square squad attack their largest head of
government at a non-federal level in Australia, Campbell Newman. I was particularly interested to note
that the federal member for Moreton, Gary Hardgrave, accused the Queensland government of a lack of
leadership on infrastructure.
The lack of leadership that he is referring to must be the $35 billion out of $55 billion in
infrastructure in the south-east Queensland plan being spent in the Transport and Main Roads portfolio.
He must be referring to the $1.6 billion Gateway Bridge duplication with no federal contribution even
though it is National Highway, the $149 million Houghton Highway duplication, the $220 million
improvements to the Centenary Highway, the $600 million for Sunshine Coast roads projects including
duplicating the Maroochy Bridge, the CAMCOS corridor including the Landsborough to Beerwah
upgrading of the rail network, the east-west link to Caboolture, the $460 million for the inner northern
busway, the $530 million for the northern busway, the upgrades to the Logan Motorway and the Mount
Lindesay Highway, the rail crossing grade separations, the Coomera interchange and half the money
that we want for the Pacific Motorway upgrade. They are the sorts of things that we are doing and have
funded in the South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan.
We are working with Campbell Newman in relation to the north-south tunnel and the airport link
and, in fact, putting in $16 million of the $21 million for the feasibility study. We will put our money where
our mouth is. He is accused of badgering local members. If only the apologists on that side of the House
would do their job as well. Why is it that the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Liberal Party
are not telling the federal government to give us a fair go? Motorists pay 38.1 cents per litre in fuel tax
and we get about 18 per cent returned to our roads in Australia. We have the worst National Highway
system.