Mr Katter gave an emotional speech in Parliament last week, proposing a renewed push for an inland highway as an alternative faster route from Cairns to Melbourne and as an economic stimulus for beleaguered shire councils along the route.

``There are a myriad of benefits from this; it's not only a strategic, cost-effective and common-sense alternative to congestion on the Bruce Highway, but delivers the type of infrastructure that is desperately needed to drive economic activity in the state,'' Mr Katter said.

The project would help shire councils that are suffering from the poor conditions in the cattle industry, the removal of capital works funding for roads and rail cut backs, and he cited Flinders Shire Council and Etheridge Shire Council as examples.

``Rural ratepayers make up the majority of western councils revenue and many of these residents simply will not have the money to pay rates over the next year or so,'' Mr Katter said.

``Flinders Shire Council gets approximately ?jl60 per cent of its revenue from roadwork activity, but there are no capital works planned for that shire or indeed for the whole of the North West, for the next four years.

``Thrown into the mix is that the town has just lost 30 rail jobs, and the outlook is very dire indeed.'' 

Councils were typically the largest employer in these towns and provided the majority of work for most of the larger local contractors, Mr Katter said.

``These towns will need some sort of stimulus to keep them viable and I believe that roadworks would strategically contribute to Queensland's economy,'' he said.

``Councils can employ more people and at the same time distribute the benefits of the revenue to residents.'' 

Mr Katter said an inland highway via the Hann Highway and the Torrens Creek-Aramac Road would save 13 hours of driving from Cairns to Melbourne, and triple road trains could use the new route.

``For every triple road train that uses the inland highway, we would take two B-doubles off the Bruce Highway,'' he said. 

He said the cost would be about $100 million - less than 15 per cent of the commitment to the new government office building in Brisbane.

``This is the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone -  to stimulate rural activity and deliver strategic road infrastructure that will go some way to resolving issues on the Bruce Highway,'' Mr Katter said.

``Coupled with a new logistics distribution centre near Hughenden, it could provide a strategic logistical solution to bottlenecks in Townsville port as well.''