RACQ lists transport and infrastructure priorities for QLD

Insurer RACQ has urged the Palaszczuk government to fast-track vital infrastructure projects and to ease the financial burden on motorists, as it released the list of transport and infrastructure priorities for Queensland budget 2018-19.

Paul Turner, RACQ spokesperson, said Queensland residents have copped the highest transport costs experienced in a decade.

“Transport affects people’s day-to-day lives,” Turner said. “It’s vital we get the infrastructure we need to be able to get around safely and efficiently in the future. In the last three years, transport and roads funding has dropped to the lowest level in a decade. Road safety must be a priority – if it isn’t, we’ll lose more lives and run our state into the ground.”

Turner said Queensland motorists were also fed up by the high costs of petrol, vehicle registration, and stamp duty.

“Drivers here are paying more than in most other states,” Turner said. “We need to eliminate stamp duty on new cars and freeze vehicle registration for three years, saving motorists $230m.”

The top transport and infrastructure priorities identified by RACQ are as follows:

• increased on-road police presence for greater enforcement of unsafe driving;
• an AusRAP rating of three stars or better for 90% of state government infrastructure by 2022;
• government support, funding, and crash data for both ANCAP and Used Car Safety Rating programs;
• funding for the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council;
• implementation of a transparent real-time fuel price reporting system
• freeze vehicle registration for three years;
• eliminate stamp duty on new cars;
• Queensland’s annual roads and transport capital expenditure to be a minimum of 2% of gross state product;
• implementation of a an integrated public transport authority that administers the delivery of all public transport services in Queensland; and
• upgrades to urban state-controlled roads to include segregated cycle infrastructure.

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