"The present Labor state government, represented by member for Mulgrave, Curtis Pitt, refuses to consider what the community is demanding. Mr Pitt falls back on tired and out of date excuses about cost and not meeting the needs of his government's regional plan," Mrs Quick said.
Mrs Quick said that over the last three years, the Southern Corridor Action Group had held public meetings, organised a petition with over 1500 signatures which has been presented to the Queensland Parliament, presented a submission to Department of Main Roads and led a delegation to the Community Cabinet in Innisfail in 2010.
"All these initiatives have been rejected by the Bligh Labor government. No assistance has been received from Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter either," Mrs Quick said.
"Following representations from the group, the issue has been raised in both the Queensland parliament by Fiona Simpson, LNP Shadow Minister for Main Roads at the time, and in the Federal parliament by LNP Senator Ian MacDonald. Leader of the Federal National Party, Warren Truss, also spoke in favour of an investigation at a roadside media announcement before the last Federal election," Mrs Quick said.
"Federal Member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, also supports a review of options for the southern corridor, unlike his predecessor, Jim Turnour, who supported the Labor line of rejection of a second corridor and who lost his seat at the last election."
"This issue has been reported and discussed for 30-40 years. With the increasing population in the southern growth corridor, including a projected growth of 40,000 in the proposed Mt Peter area, the increased congestion, the growth of the number of heavy transport vehicles, school traffic and commuter and business traffic, we cannot delay any longer. We also need to consider the use of the rail corridor as part of this review," Mrs Quick said.
