A Shorten Labor Government will invest $75 million in the Townsville Port Channel Widening project – delivering hundreds of new jobs for Townsville and regional Queensland.

Widening the port in Townsville will boost the local economy, create at least 120 construction jobs and 60 ongoing jobs for locals, and more than 200 additional jobs across the state. 

The Port of Townsville is currently too narrow to accommodate larger container vessels, resulting in a lot of cargo bypassing Townsville for southern ports.

This puts more pressure on roads and rail in and out of Townsville, and puts a handbrake on the local economy.

In 2015-16, Townsville Port handled more than nine million tonnes of trade worth around $10 billion – but it has the potential to do more.

Widening the channel will set up the Port of Townsville to attract more shipping traffic – increasing import and export opportunities and delivering a $580 million economic dividend.

It will also deliver substantial growth in cruise ship traffic – boosting tourism for the region.  

The Townsville Port Channel Widening project is part of Labor’s Plan for Real Jobs in Regional Queensland.

Labor will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure projects to grow local economies and create thousands of new jobs for Queenslanders.

Labor’s number one priority for Queenslanders is jobs. It always has been and it always will be.

Bill Shorten and Labor have spent a lot of time in regional Queensland, holding town hall meetings and listening to locals about what matters to them. Now we are delivering – with new infrastructure and new jobs.

Labor can fund these job-creating projects because unlike Turnbull and the Conservatives, we aren’t giving new tax handouts to multinationals and millionaires.

With Federal Labor’s $75 million investment, the Queensland Labor Government’s $75 million commitment and the Port’s $43 million commitment – this important infrastructure project will be delivered.

A factsheet with more information can be found here.