Funding row erupts over $812m Bruce Highway bottleneck fix

An $812 million federal investment into critical works on the Bruce Highway represents a broken promise by the Commonwealth, Queensland’s transport minister says.

Tuesday’s federal budget is expected to include the multimillion-dollar investment into a Bruce Highway project along a problematic three-kilometre stretch in Brisbane’s north.

Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg said the Commonwealth was now funding the project on a 50-50 split with the state, breaking an agreement made ahead of last year’s federal election to foot 80 per cent of the bill for Bruce Highway projects.

“Queenslanders have fought too hard, our government has fought too hard … to ensure that we get our fair share for the Bruce Highway, and we simply won’t stand for it,” he said.

“My message to the federal government is stop shortchanging Queenslanders, come to the party, honour the agreement for 80-20 funding on the Bruce Highway, and we will work with the federal government to deliver important upgrades.”

The Courier-Mail reported that the new project, between the Gateway Motorway and Dohles Rocks Road, would cover additional bridges and connections to local streets.

Mickelberg said the stretch had known “congestion challenges”, and described the announcement as a “sneaky walk-back” delivered through a drop to the media.

“This is an attempt to distract from their broken promises in relation to the federal budget,” the minister said.

Queensland already has at least 80 projects planned or under construction along the Bruce Highway, for a total cost of close to $9 billion, of which just $1.8 billion will come from the state.

The LNP took the funding deal to the 2024 state election, and announced it had been secured in early 2025.

On Tuesday, Mickelberg said the arterial Queensland road needed hefty government investment to fix “critical safety defects”.

“Far too many Queenslanders are stuck in traffic and are losing their life on the Bruce Highway, which is inadequate and, in some places, unsafe,” he said.

“In 2024, 43 lives were lost on the Bruce Highway, and last year, 35 lives were lost.”

The minister said Queensland needed continued federal backing across all major transport projects ahead of the 2032 Olympics, including highway and rail upgrades.

Earlier on Tuesday, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner repeated his council’s demand for more federal funding for restoration of the Story Bridge.

Footpaths on the bridge were closed for months last year, as the council installed netting to stop concrete falling onto the paths below.

Schrinner told ABC Radio Brisbane the $4 million federal investment towards the bridge restoration business case did not mean the Commonwealth should not provide future funding.

“This infrastructure, of such size and importance, needs a federal commitment, and it needs a state commitment as well,” he said.

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