Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for his question. At the election Labor made a clear commitment not only to continue with AusLink 1 but also to expand our funding for AusLink 2. What we need is a plan to deal with infrastructure in an integrated fashion. We need a plan for road and we need a plan for rail. We need a plan that recognises that we need to get our goods to port and we need to get our people around our cities. With regard to the specific question which the minister raised, I am very pleased that this week I will be introducing into the parliament legislation to create Infrastructure Australia. Infrastructure Australia will conduct an audit of the infrastructure needs of the nation, both now and into the future. It will be able to establish an infrastructure priority list based upon objective criteria, with input from the Commonwealth, input from the state, input from local government, as well as input from the private sector.

See this speech in context