Lockyer MP Jim McDonald isn’t going to be fobbed off that easily by Transport and Main Roads in Queensland.
In the latest chapter of the long-running fight to have basic toilet facilities installed at the $18m Gatton decoupling facility, McDonald said TMR rejected a proposal to have $5.50 per day portable toilet installed at the site.
Their reason?
“They told me that a portaloo is as much a risk to biosecurity as permanent toilets, but I don’t believe that for a minute – that’s just rot,” said McDonald.
McDonald is championing a parliamentary petition organised by sit-in protester Wes Walker and said that like Walker, he’s digging in for a long fight to get the truckies the facilities they deserve.
He’s not buying TMR’s excuse that installing toilets would pose a biosecurity risk to adjoining agriculture research programs of the University of Queensland.
“Portable toilets are taken away, and people are using the great outdoors already which is got to be a greater biohazard risk,” said McDonald.
McDonald believes that TMR has botched the design and is dodging the real issue with “bureaucratic answers”.
In a recent media statement, TMR said truckies can simply use the nearby BP service station, approximately three kilometres away, or the Gatton Bypass Rest Area, 8.5km away.
But McDonald has already heard of one incident highlighting the absurdity of those solutions.
A truckie accidentally got radiator coolant in his eyes and if it wasn’t for Walker being on hand with his own water to flush it out, he could have been seriously injured.
To sign Waker’s petition (open to Queensland residents only) click here.