It was an incredible result, three years in the making.

On January 6, 2025, the prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, committed to the biggest-ever funding commitment for Queensland’s most important piece of infrastructure: the 1700 km Bruce Highway linking the capital Brisbane to Cairns in the north.  

The A$7.2 billion funding guarantee was a direct result of the Help Our Highway advocacy campaign, led by The Courier-Mail and its sister publications throughout regional Queensland. At the same time, the Queensland government promised to kick in A$1.8 billion as part of an agreed 80/20 funding split with the federal government.  

It’s a decision that will save lives and improve the economic prosperity of regional Queensland. And it was made possible by our campaigning.

Humble beginnings

The concept originated three years prior, in December 2022. 

Our editors from across Queensland met to discuss ideas for campaigns that would benefit Queenslanders across the state. At the top of the list of ideas was to fix the Bruce Highway, as it was the one issue that united our readers.

Six months later, national insurance company NRMA came to our business wanting to partner on a major editorial initiative, and backed our idea for “Help Our Highway.”

Our key objective was simple: The entire highway needed to be brought up to a minimum three-star safety rating. That safety rating demand was the bare minimum, a pass mark that would save lives and billions of dollars in lost economic revenue.

So our editors and journalists across Queensland worked tirelessly to highlight the dire state of the Bruce Highway, what needed to be done and advocate to all levels of government to commit their support.

An ambitious launch

The campaign launched with a high-impact Web site and newspaper front pages in April 2024, led by The Courier-Mail and its sister publications across regional Queensland. We broke the exclusive story that almost half the Bruce Highway had been officially assessed as failing basic safety ratings, and just 10% is deemed extremely safe. The safety rating data had been kept a secret until our campaign.

Our print coverage on the day of launch included an open letter from NRMA. Their insurance data revealed a 48% increase in claims on the highway over the past five years — and a survey of their members in Queensland found that the highway had negatively impacted 58%.

Our PR and marketing teams helped generate additional statewide and national media coverage across TV, radio, and news media Web sites, all drawing attention to the state of the highway and our campaign.  

As the front pages of The Courier-Mail, Cairns Post and Townsville Bulletin depicted on the day we collectively launched Help Our Highway, the road is the “Shame of our State.”

Campaign results

The largest ever funding contribution to the Bruce Highway — $9 billion — has been announced thanks to our relentless campaigning.

On top of the funding commitments, the federal and Queensland transport ministers have agreed to release crucial Bruce Highway safety data from 2025 publicly. The Australian Automobile Association has credited the Help Our Highway campaign with driving this government action. The front pages of our newspapers and homepages of our digital news sites made this issue a priority. 

Since the campaign launched, we have reported on every death on the highway through this prism — pointing out that most are entirely preventable, as they happened on poorly rated sections of the road. We spoke to families of the 134 people who tragically died on the Bruce Highway in the four years before the Help Our Highway campaign to illustrate the horrific and long-lasting impact this road is having.

The campaign achieved remarkable results. In its debut week, Help Our Highway delivered 68.2 million media impressions, including widespread national PR from competitor media outlets, including Seven’s Sunrise and Nine’s Today Show. Phase one alone saw 33 editorial articles and 27 social media posts from News Corp Australia titles to amplify the message statewide.

The campaign delivered significant brand lift for NRMA Insurance. Ad awareness rose by +13 points, brand preference increased by +7 points, with purchase intent  +3 points, according to an On Device Research Cross-Channel Media Brand Impact Study. 

A Kantar Content Uplift study also highlighted significant improvements in brand sentiment, with 79% of Queenslanders finding the campaign relevant to local needs. Perceptions of NRMA Insurance also shifted dramatically, with 78% feeling positively toward the brand. 

In just three months, this campaign accomplished what a traditional campaign would deliver for a brand in a year. Help Our Highway has been a massive win for Queensland and is a testament to the positive impact journalists have on the communities they serve.

Most importantly, this campaign will save lives.

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