Sunshine Motorway upgrade needed

Tragically two lives have been lost on the Sunshine Motorway in the last month and it is no surprise that the RACQ have named this as the Coast’s riskiest road.

The most dangerous section has been the merges near the Nicklin Way/Mooloolah River Interchange (MRI) which is why, together with my Coast colleagues, we’re fighting for this upgrade to be prioritised.

North the Maroochy River, the wide centre line treatments and rumble strips have helped save lives, dropping the death and injury rates between the Coolum interchange and Pacific Paradise interchange. However recently there have been two tragic fatalities on this section. The answer is there has to be a duplication and this is something my colleague Dan Purdie, Member for Ninderry and I are fighting for.

Coast Cancer Care Services continue to grow

Congratulations to Sunshine Coast Haematology and Oncology Clinic and Genesis CancerCare QLD who are coming together at Buderim to add radiation therapy to the chemotherapy and haematological services already there.

My family and I are grateful for the care and treatment my Dad received there. Prior to the wonderful cancer care facility opening at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, the Coast had public access to radiation therapy at private providers so people didn’t have to travel to Brisbane. Seeing more services coming to the Coast across the public and private is great news.

TAFE spending concerns highlighted

I am concerned that TAFE Queensland has wasted $230,000 in taxpayer money on tickets to the Commonwealth Games, while the number of students completing their TAFE studies are falling.

Recently in Parliament I raised concerns that taxpayers picked up the bill for 2148 tickets for the Commonwealth Games purchased by TAFE Queensland, while program completion rates at TAFE and other government providers have crashed 42% since 2014.

This is another example where the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s priorities are all wrong.

Instead of fixing the training crisis and skilling Queenslanders for work, Labor was swanning around at the games. We are calling on the State Government to focus on prioritising training and helping young people rather than this largesse.