Portfolio — 23 April 2026

Assistant Minister for Northern Australia Nita Green used a pair of PM media releases on 23 April to signal accelerating construction momentum across two geographically distinct Bruce Highway safety works — one in far north Queensland and one in Central Queensland — together representing the most visible recent output of the $9 billion Bruce Highway Targeted Safety Program.

The headline announcement was construction beginning ahead of schedule on the $25 million Dean Road to Tully High School upgrade in the Cassowary Coast region [TA-260423-infras-233f5a13c81e]. The project is jointly funded — $20 million Australian Government, $5 million Queensland Government — and targets completion by mid-2027. The safety design package is specific: signalised intersection improvements, road and shoulder widening, wide centre line treatment to reduce head-on crash risk, vegetation removal, culvert extensions, and drainage treatments [TA-260423-infras-73b37a956ba3:m259819].

The ahead-of-schedule framing is notable; it positions delivery performance, not just investment quantum, as the ministerial message.

The second announcement covers a 22-kilometre upgrade between Pine Mountain Creek and Deep Creek, north of Marlborough in Central Queensland [TA-260423-infras-dc154ecb629e]. This project draws on both the Targeted Safety Program and the separate $1 billion Bruce Highway Safety Package — a funding structure that distinguishes it from the Tully project and suggests a deliberate layering of program instruments to address a longer corridor stretch between Rockhampton and St Lawrence.

The works include road widening, wide centre line treatments, audio-tactile line marking, pavement strengthening, targeted intersection upgrades, and drainage improvements.

Taken together, the two releases establish the program's geographic reach across the Gympie-to-Cairns corridor. The Targeted Safety Program has now delivered 8 completed projects with 19 underway; a further 16 construction projects are rolling out from early 2026 [TA-260423-infras-c8314731a3d6:m259819]. The full $9 billion program is funded 80/20 between the Australian Government ($7.2 billion) and Queensland Government ($1.8 billion).

Green's framing across both releases positions the program as a coordinated federal-state partnership targeting crash reduction and wet-season resilience while supporting freight and tourism on Queensland's key regional corridors — a messaging frame that spans safety outcomes and economic rationale simultaneously.