Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Infrastructure Australia Bill 2008. This bill is for the establishment of a new body, as the previous speaker was outlining, whose primary function will largely be the provision of advice on infrastructure priorities to the federal government and governments at the state and local level, to investors in infrastructure and to owners of infrastructure. It will advise on Australia’s current and future needs and priorities relating to nationally significant infrastructure. It will also advise on impediments to the efficient utilisation of national infrastructure networks and provide advice on options in reforms, including regulatory reforms, to achieve efficiency gains in the nation’s infrastructure networks.

There is no doubt that infrastructure planning and delivery by definition need to be well planned and coordinated in order to maintain a healthy level of growth in the Australian economy. Without regular investment in road, rail and port infrastructure, bottlenecks develop and these hinder productivity, which in turn can increase costs faced by business and industry. But let us not deceive our constituents by allowing a false perception to be created by this bill. Under the Australian Constitution, much of the nation’s vital economic infrastructure is the responsibility of the states. Roads, highways, ports, electricity and water have traditionally been funded and provided by state governments and, in many cases, local governments under the authority of state governments. However, traditionally the Commonwealth has had the financial capacity to assist the states in the provision of infrastructure and provides grants to state and local governments to fund infrastructure projects.

Let us also understand the issue and not deceive our constituents into thinking that this bill marks some form of new ground zero in national infrastructure development in this country, because it surely does not. The Commonwealth government has become involved in important nation-building projects over many, many years. The most obvious and the most significant and iconic in the Australian imagination and in reality is the Snowy Mountains hydro scheme, built between 1949 and 1974. It was the largest engineering project ever completed in Australia’s history. This project and its workforce changed our nation forever.

More recently AusLink was established by the former government under John Howard to deliver funding for the nation’s most critical land transport infrastructure. AusLink mark 1 was an $11.8 billion land transport plan that incorporated former national highways, key urban freight routes and key rail links between capital cities. An investment of this scale could only have been made possible because of the Howard government’s strong record of economic management. A record 10 surplus budgets in a row delivered the capacity to deliver billions of dollars of national infrastructure projects, including roads, railways and ports. AusLink identified a national land transport network, including links to airports and shipping ports. It was a multimodal plan comprising both road and rail and was applauded at the time for integrating them. There was an emphasis placed on improving transport corridors between the nation’s largest cities. Improvements to freight routes were also vital for business and industry.

During the 11½ years of the Howard government many important infrastructure projects were delivered as a consequence of good fiscal responsibility and strong and prudent economic management of our nation’s purse strings. Some examples in my own home state of New South Wales of the benefits of this sound economic management and funding that found its way to important infrastructure projects include the Western Sydney orbital, a project which I think is one of the only Sydney road projects, at least in recent memory, that has not become a public farce. Three hundred and fifty-six million dollars of federal funds was given to this $1.5 billion transport project, at the urging, I might stress strongly, of the many Western Sydney Liberal members of parliament at the time. The remainder of the funds came from the private sector. The orbital has proved to be critical infrastructure for Sydney’s booming employment hub in Western Sydney as we see whole new developments come up along the hub and along the corridor. This is becoming an important distribution network for Sydney, for New South Wales and for the nation more generally.

But there are others. The Albury bypass: $25 million of federal funds was given to this $524 million project to construct a freeway standard bypass of the Albury urban centre. The Tugun bypass, an infrastructure project straddling the New South Wales and Queensland border: $120 million of federal funds was given to this $543 million road project linking Queensland’s Gold Coast with the Pacific Highway near Tweed Heads in northern New South Wales. There was the duplication of the Sheehan Bridge on the Hume Highway at Gundagai. This project is being undertaken entirely with funds allocated by the former Howard government under the AusLink program. The Pacific Highway upgrade: before 1996 just nine per cent of the Pacific Highway between Hexham and the Queensland border had four lanes. Because of funding provided by the Howard government, more than 39 per cent of that highway is now dual carriageway in the areas I have mentioned. There is the widening of the F3: $86 million of federal funds went into widening the F3 between the Hawkesbury River and Calga. This project has improved traffic congestion on a road that carries more than 60,000 motorists and 7,000 freight vehicles per day. The North Kiama bypass: the Howard government contributed $34 million to this $179 million project, which removed a dangerous bottleneck on the Princes Highway south of Wollongong. The Hume Highway: federal funds were allowed for forward planning on the Newell Highway bypass at Holbrook and Tarcutta. The $179 million Coolah bypass is being fully funded with federal funds under AusLink. Also, members driving to Canberra from Sydney will have noticed recent improvements to the Hume Highway north of Goulburn at Towrang and Carrick roads. These roadworks were completed with federal funding of about $7.5 million.

The benefits of AusLink did not stop at highway construction. There was significant funding allocated to important railway infrastructure. The Australian Rail Track Corporation manages over 10,000 route kilometres of standard gauge interstate track in four states, which I am sure would be of great interest to the former member for Farrer and former Deputy Prime Minister, who is a keen enthusiast on rail matters and would have been very excited about this initiative. Recent investments of federal funding through this program included $2.4 billion invested to upgrade the interstate and Hunter Valley rail system. Federal funding enabled the replacement of the old rail bridge over the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga. Trains no longer need to slow to 20 kilometres an hour. They can now cross the river at the more acceptable speed of 80 kilometres an hour. The Sandgate flyover in the Hunter Valley provides grade separation between coal trains heading to the port and other trains using the main line between Sydney and Brisbane. This $80 million investment delivers the rail infrastructure that is needed to meet the future demands of Australia’s coal exports from Newcastle.

I now turn my attention to some of the failures that we have seen in infrastructure in my home state of New South Wales and also locally, and the failure of the state government of New South Wales to invest in infrastructure. It is not a misrepresentation of the truth to say that the New South Wales state Labor government has a reputation for being a bungler when it comes to important infrastructure projects in that important state—that is, the projects that it delivers. Many do not even get past the announcement phase. They get announced many times—in fact, I suspect more has been invested in the public relations associated with the announcements of some of these projects than has actually been invested in infrastructure itself—but many do not even get past the announcement phase before they die a horrible death at the hands of the New South Wales Treasury, the New South Wales Treasurer or just general government incompetence.

An example of their track record includes, of course, the Monty of them all, the Cross-City Tunnel. The handling of that project was nothing short of a debacle. This $1 billion investment by the private sector opened in 2005 and, within months, the state Labor government reversed local road closures and diversions as part of a contract they negotiated in secret with the Roads and Traffic Authority. This was taken by many to be a signal that you cannot do business with the New South Wales government. If you are going to have negotiations about infrastructure projects, have them in the open. Do not have them behind closed doors. When you are exposed by the incompetence and narrow-mindedness of those negotiations, you put at risk the credit and investment reputation of your state because you have been unable to be upfront with the people who put you there in the first place. As a result, it was not long before the tunnel owners went into receivership and a fire sale saw the project sold for just $694 million. But, despite all of this, and the reputation of the tunnel, motorists are going to be slugged with a 46c increase in their toll next month.

The 3.6 kilometre Lane Cove tunnel, built at a cost of $1.1 billion, opened to motorists in March 2007. It should have opened in February 2007 but, as we know, this was delayed, at some considerable cost to the taxpayers of New South Wales. During the construction, part of an apartment block fell into a section of the excavations. Some of us will remember the fairly devastating image that we saw of units hanging precariously over a large hole. We also know of the tragedy and devastation experienced because of how long it took for those people who were affected by that incident to get compensation. For many in Sydney, this project, this hole in the ground, reflected everything that was wrong with the city’s crumbling infrastructure—congested roads and poor public transport. But worse was to come. As I said before, it did not open until March. It was supposed to open in February. At a $25 million cost to the taxpayer, it was delayed until after the March 2007 state election.

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