Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am not saying we need a Harbour Bridge everywhere, but certainly over the water. I do believe that Labor have that kind of vision where we are concerned not just about the next election or the opinion polls but about leaving a legacy which carries on after we have departed. The proof of this is that as early as May 2005 Labor announced that we would establish Infrastructure Australia. In August 2007 our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd—who was Leader of the Opposition then—reiterated that pledge. Kevin Rudd, our leader, said that Infrastructure Australia would deal with policy and regulatory issues, audit the adequacy of the nation’s infrastructure, identify weaknesses, prioritise projects, evaluate the business case of projects and financing options and manage the probity process.

The bill we are speaking to today has been years in the planning. The member for Cook has said that the Prime Minister is a new ‘father of federation’; it is certainly not a mantle that one would bestow on the most recent previous occupant of the prime ministership. Members of the opposition might not be aware that once upon a time we used to extol the virtues of nation building. It used to be something that our national government did as a matter of course. But for the last 11 years, regrettably, this nation’s national leadership has been asleep in some sort of infrastructure coma, from which Labor has had to awaken the nation.

Back in 2003 the Allen Consulting Group prepared a report for the Property Council of Australia about financing urban public infrastructure. They pointed to compelling evidence linking investment in public infrastructure with productivity growth and economic prosperity.

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