Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This legislation that we are discussing today, the Infrastructure Australia Bill 2008, is going to develop a planned approach to infrastructure. It is an act to establish Infrastructure Australia and to appoint its coordinator. It is about a national coordinated approach to reform infrastructure investment, which is critical to Australia’s future economic performance and raising national productivity.

Sitting here in the Main Committee, I have heard speaker after speaker from the other side talking about state governments, with the previous speaker talking about a railway station in her electorate. That is not what this legislation is about. This is about a national approach to infrastructure investment. This is about planning. This is about the future. It is not about a railway station in any particular member’s electorate. It is not about blaming the state government for every problem that exists within our electorate. This is about moving on from the blame game. This is about the federal government taking responsibility through a national approach to infrastructure. To have the right sort of infrastructure in place in this country that is so vast is one of the most important issues that any government could possibly have before it.

In the last parliament I was a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services, which brought down a report, The great freight task, looking at all the issues around infrastructure gaps and bottlenecks in relation to ports. The overwhelming issue that was apparent to me was the need to adopt a national approach. There were some very significant recommendations made in that report, which I am sure will be looked at by Infrastructure Australia. It is very pleasing to see that Sir Rod Eddington will be the inaugural chair of Infrastructure Australia. He is a person who has had a long history of looking at infrastructure. Part of his initial work will be developing long-term solutions to infrastructure gaps and bottlenecks, and looking at the decade of underinvestment in the national transport, water, energy and community assets of our country—assets that are vitally important if Australia is to be a competitive nation.

This legislation will put Australia in a position where we are accepting the responsibility and challenges of the future by ensuring competitive and efficient national infrastructure markets, setting clear investment priorities and putting in place an appropriate regulatory environment. It was a key election promise of the Rudd government and one of the initiatives and commitments that were put to the Australian people that led to the Rudd government being elected.

Infrastructure Australia will be charged with the development of a strategic blueprint for our nation’s infrastructure needs and, in doing that, I am sure they will be looking at this report. It is also going to adopt a cooperative process for the Commonwealth, states and industry. There is going to be a partnership. Everybody is going to work together. It is about stopping the blame game. It is about stopping one-off commitments to marginal seats or National Party electorates; rather, it is about ensuring that in Australia we have got a planned approach, we identify the needs and we make sure that we deliver on those important issues for the future.

On this side of the parliament, we are about nation building. We are about the future. We are about taking Australia forward so it can be an important player internationally rather than just reacting to issues on a one-off basis. Infrastructure is important if we are to have ongoing economic prosperity. It was the previous government’s neglect of infrastructure over the long, long 11 years that they were in government that has been one of the contributing factors to the economic position we find ourselves in today. The Rudd government will be dealing with that neglect. We will be adopting a national, coordinated approach to tackling those infrastructure bottlenecks that were highlighted in The great freight task, the report that was brought down in the last parliament.

Infrastructure Australia will drive investment where it is needed, not just in the electorates of marginal seat holders; rather, it is about planning. It is about good government. It is about a new era in government, something that did not happen in the last parliament. It is about developing a strategic blueprint for our infrastructure needs and it is about driving reform. It is not about whether some member needs to be placated in order to make sure that they will support a government initiative—which was the case with the last government—or whether the infrastructure is located in a particular National Party or marginal seat.

The Howard government had 11 long years to fix the infrastructure bottlenecks in Australia. It did not respond to this report that I have in my hand, The great freight task. It failed the Australian people in that. When I stand in this House and I hear speaker after speaker blaming the state governments, it says to me that, even after losing the election, they do not get it. They just do not get it. They do not understand that the future of Australia is in our hands and that we need to develop a planned approach. We need Infrastructure Australia to be in place. We need to embrace the tasks that are urgent. It is time to stop wasting time and it is time to stop blaming the states for every problem that exists. It is time to make sure that we have the infrastructure in place, that there is national coordination of infrastructure that will boost our economic efficiency, productivity and Australia’s international competitiveness.

This has always been the Labor way. It started with Ben Chifley with the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Gough Whitlam gave us practical infrastructure solutions such as sewerage and hospitals. So did Tom Uren, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. History will judge Labor as the party that always invested in infrastructure, and developed a planned approach to making sure that Australia as a nation has the right infrastructure to move forward into the future, and it will condemn the opposition as the party of the quick fix, the party that blamed the states and the party that failed to take leadership.

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