Media Release: Turnbull Government welcomes matched M1 funding

The Turnbull Government welcomes the announcement today by the Queensland Government that it will match our $1 billion in funding for vitally needed upgrades on the M1 Motorway.

The Turnbull Government has led the way on funding on the M1, announcing in April this year that we would commit $1 billion for the construction of two high-priority upgrade projects—one between Varsity Lakes and Tugun on the Gold Coast end of the M1 Corridor, the other between Eight Mile Plains and Daisy Hill.

It is pleasing that the Palaszczuk Government has now abandoned its earlier argument that the Commonwealth should fund 80% of the cost of these projects. 50:50 funding has consistently applied for projects on the M1 between Brisbane and the Gold Coast for many years under both Labor and Coalition federal Governments.

The Turnbull Government has long recognised that the M1 is one of the most important and heavily congested routes in Queensland - with nearly 30 million tonnes of freight moving between New South Wales and Queensland each year and between 50,000 and 155,000 vehicles per day using sections of the M1 from Springwood to Tugun.

This is why we committed to these two new projects earlier this year, in addition to our existing commitments made in 2016 on the M1: $115 million for the M1 Pacific Motorway—Gateway Merge and $110 million for the M1 Pacific Motorway—Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes project, both of which commenced construction last month. 

This commitment followed sustained advocacy by LNP MPs Bert van Manen MP, Member for Forde; Karen Andrews MP, Member for McPherson; Steve Ciobo MP, Member for Moncrieff; Stuart Robert MP, Member for Fadden and Ross Vasta MP, Member for Bonner.

Motorists will greatly benefit from this substantial investment in new upgrades.

The Turnbull Government now looks forward to seeing detailed business cases from the Queensland Government provided to Infrastructure Australia.