Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, you keenly observed my great enthusiasm to contribute to this debate, and I am very pleased to have the opportunity now to speak to the Infrastructure Australia Bill 2008, because this bill is so symbolic of the Australian Labor Party. In so many respects, this bill really is the epitome of the Australian Labor Party, because it is a bill that seems on the surface to present so much and to herald so much about what the Australian Labor Party has in store now that it is the government.

Once you start to pierce through the spin, the lack of substance, the grand rhetorical statements and the various historical blurrings and inaccuracies that come from members opposite, you start to realise that this bill, like so much of the new Rudd Labor government’s agenda, is completely and utterly without substance. This bill is without substance because it sees the creation of Infrastructure Australia, a new bureaucracy that the Rudd Labor government says is going to deliver in spades. It begs the very question. Labor has been in power across every state and territory in Australia now for at least a decade and, in just about every respect, we have seen state Labor governments fail on all fronts. It is a big F for fail for the Queensland, New South Wales, South Australian, Western Australian, Victorian, Tasmanian, Northern Territory and ACT Labor governments. The reason they all fail is that every Labor government is big on spin but very poor when it comes to actual delivery of services.

I will talk about a jurisdiction that I know well, Queensland, and the fact that the Australian Labor Party has been in power in Queensland for 18 of the last 20 years—years where we have seen next to nothing when it comes to infrastructure leadership by the state Labor government. So, when members opposite stand up in this chamber and wax lyrical about the importance of investing in infrastructure, you actually know that it is just spin, it is just rhetoric and there is no actual delivery. If there were delivery at a state level, there would not be 40 ships sitting off the port of Dalrymple waiting to be loaded. If there were delivery, the former coalition government would not have been required to invest a record amount of money to make up for state government inaction. The fact is that the Labor Party is big on talk but absolutely weak when it comes to doing anything. This bill, I predict, will be symbolic of the entire Rudd Labor government, where we will see all sorts of promises being heralded—the same sorts of promises that we saw prior to the election when the now Prime Minister stood up and said, ‘Under the Labor Party, fuel prices will go down.’ This is the same Prime Minister who said, ‘Under the Labor Party, grocery prices will go down.’ In the same way, the Rudd Labor government says, ‘Elect us, and we will make sure that we see investment in infrastructure and the creation of Infrastructure Australia’—the new body that is going to mastermind all of this.

Let us consider what members of the government have said previously in this debate. In particular, we heard the speaker previous to me talk about how one of the key achievements of the Infrastructure Australia Bill will be the creation of an audit of infrastructure needs in Australia as if it is a new thing, as if in some way the audit of infrastructure needs in Australia will present a new change in Australia. I have news for the previous speaker: there has been an audit done at a state level already, and it has not heralded anything. Perhaps the previous speaker could explain to me why it is that in a city like the Gold Coast—the fastest-growing region in Australia and Australia’s sixth largest city—the Beattie Labor government, and now the Bligh Labor government, have done basically nothing for our city for a decade. Perhaps that could be explained by the previous Labor speaker. Perhaps the previous Labor speaker could explain why the Queensland government, like every other state Labor government with the exception of Western Australia, is now running budget deficits to the tune of $80 billion—debt at a state level brought on by the Labor Party putting upward pressure on inflation. I take objection to members opposite lecturing the coalition on inflation when $80 billion of debt is driven by them at a state level.

I take objection to the Labor Party lecturing the coalition about how hard it is to deal with Australia’s economy, referred to as the ‘miracle economy’ by the Economist magazine. When we lost office, we left the Labor Party with a $17 billion surplus and a 30-year low in unemployment. That is the record of the former government. The fact is that the former government invested $15.8 billion in infrastructure and a further $22.3 billion in infrastructure under the AusLink program. I noticed the previous Labor speaker never once mentioned AusLink. He probably does not even know about it and probably has not even heard of AusLink, even though it was the biggest item of expenditure on infrastructure by the coalition government. The new Labor government have to pull up their socks to match the track record of the former government when it comes to investment in infrastructure.

The new Labor government should certainly not be copying their state Labor mates. If you are copying your state Labor mates, I can assure members opposite that what we will see is disinvestment in infrastructure, and we will see the Labor Party turn their back on much-needed investment in roads, airports, ports and rail. That is the legacy of state Labor governments.

I will pick up one other point that the previous speaker raised: the need for access to water infrastructure. Let me invite members opposite to come to the Gold Coast and south-east Queensland. Please come up, and I will explain the problems faced by a population of several million. The Labor Party has been in power for 18 of the last 20 years, and the Queensland population in south-east Queensland has nearly doubled, and they have not built one dam—not one dam in south-east Queensland in nearly 20 years. The biggest single piece of infrastructure out of the last 20 years was done in the two years the coalition was in power—$1 billion for the M1 between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

I say to the Labor Party: no-one takes seriously their talk. No-one takes seriously Labor Party promises, Labor Party hot air and Labor Party rhetoric about all the virtues that will flow from the Infrastructure Australia Bill—how there will be an audit of Labor’s record when it comes to the need to invest in infrastructure and how the Labor Party is shackled with such a bad economy. No-one takes it seriously, because it is without substance, just like the Labor Party when it comes to actual infrastructure investment. If we had seen at a state level the Labor Party actually doing something then we might take seriously their desire to fix the Australian economy and to fix these infrastructure bottlenecks.

I also noted the previous speakers talking about the skills shortage in Australia. How often do we hear that? A skills shortage actually should be referred to as a ‘labour force shortage’. It is what happens when unemployment gets down to four per cent. It is in stark contrast to having a million people unemployed and 11 per cent unemployment, which was the last record of the Labor Party. ‘Skills crisis’ is not the correct phrase. The correct phrase is ‘labour force shortage’, and that is what happens when you have four per cent unemployment.

More importantly, if we want to take seriously for a moment the notion that perhaps the Labor Party are onto something when they say that there is a skills shortage, I would love to have an explanation as to why there has been next to no investment in the TAFE system by state Labor governments. In the primary area of responsibility for state Labor, vocational education and training, we have seen F for fail time and time again by every state and territory Labor government. That is the track record of the Labor Party.

We heard them during the election when they stood up and said: ‘We’re not interested in the blame game. It’s time we stopped the blame game.’ I have got some news again for the new members of the Rudd Labor government. You are going to hear a lot about the blame game from this opposition, and you are going to hear a lot because at your feet lies a decade of inaction. At the feet of the Labor Party lies the fact that state Labor governments, that are meant to invest in infrastructure and in vocational education, have done nothing.

The consequence of state Labor governments investing money, as they call it, has been bloated bureaucracies. That is the primary investment by state Labor governments. It was fascinating to see just recently that in Queensland the Bligh-Beattie Labor government has increased the bureaucracy by over 30 per cent. That is the track record—a 30 per cent increase in the bureaucracy. There is a proud boast for state Labor governments! There is much-needed infrastructure! Do not invest in new hospitals; make sure you put it into extra bureaucrats in George Street. That will make all the difference for my constituents in Moncrieff!

I must give some credit to the state Labor government. They went out and announced that there would be a new hospital for the Gold Coast. That was great, because the Gold Coast is now nearing 600,000 people, and the last time we had a new hospital the population was probably sitting at around 70,000 people. So it is about time we got a new hospital from the Queensland state Labor government. They promised that the construction would commence in March 2007, so in March 2007 I went to the sign for this new, you-beaut hospital. There, proudly erected on the site, was the sign for the new Gold Coast hospital—some much needed infrastructure. I am sure it is the kind of infrastructure that the Infrastructure Australia Committee will be looking at and recommending. The Queensland health minister and the Queensland Premier spoke proudly about how they would be doing this.

But it is with regret that I remind all my constituents that we are still waiting for a single sod to be turned. In fact, the Queensland Labor government is now saying to Gold Coasters, ‘Just put that on hold; we might actually change the site of the hospital.’ So here we are, 12 months—almost to the day—after the construction of the hospital was meant to have commenced, 12 months after they were meant to start knocking over trees and building the new hospital, and still nothing. I would have thought that there would be buildings in existence and perhaps the opportunity for Gold Coasters to get access to some first-class hospital service. Not a single tree has been knocked over, although there has been one development on the site—they took away the sign. That is the development by the Queensland Labor government—they took away the sign. That is the extent to which the Queensland Labor government believe in supporting infrastructure needs on the Gold Coast.

So I say to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, and I am hoping it occupies a lot of his time: let us get serious about putting a bit of pressure on your state Labor mates to get some action. Let us start to see some action when it comes to the words of the Labor Party on the need for new infrastructure. If there is a city that is crying out for investment and infrastructure, it is the Gold Coast. It is the fastest-growing city in the country—it is Australia’s sixth biggest city now—and we need roads. We need investment in public transport, water, health and schools. If you believe the promises made during the election campaign, each of these areas will be solved by the Australian Labor Party.

I look forward to seeing what this 12-month audit is going to present. I predict it will not be a lot, because these audits already exist at a state level and they do not seem to mean anything. Apparently now at the federal level this new committee—we know the Rudd Labor government is very fond of committees—are going to do their audit, and all of a sudden these problems will be solved. I look forward to seeing announcements by the Rudd Labor government on the kinds of projects that will be rolled out in Moncrieff, McPherson, Forde and Fadden because that is what the Labor Party said would happen in Australia’s fastest-growing city. They can start by putting some pressure on the state Labor government.

The final story I would like to talk about is my profound disappointment again with the Queensland Labor government. Let us give some history to this debate. The coalition announced $455 million to wind the M1 motorway between Nerang and Tugun—a vital arterial road for our region that connects Brisbane to Sydney. Unfortunately, at the moment it is also used by a lot of local commuter traffic on the Gold Coast—not by the interstate traffic that it was designed for. In part, the reason for this is that the Labor Party at the state level have not invested in the side arterial roads that local traffic is meant to use. Instead, they have been happy to see that traffic move onto the M1. So the coalition announced $455 million to expand the M1. This is an important announcement and a big win, dare I say it, for the member for McPherson, the newly elected member for Fadden and me. It was a big win because the Queensland government said that if the coalition provided $427 million they would commence the project immediately.

So they asked for $427 million; the Howard government provided $455 million. But what I find extraordinary—and I remind the people in suburbs like Boonooroo Park, Nerang, Worongary, Robina and Mudgeeraba—is that we provided $455 million even though $427 million was the requested figure and now the Queensland Labor government says that the vast bulk of that money is going to be used on winding the M1 in Logan—not on the Gold Coast. That money is being misappropriated—and I use that word very deliberately—from an important project that we provided the funding for to be used up in Logan in the southern outskirts of Brisbane. Again, I say to the infrastructure minister, if you want to use some pressure let us see you apply some pressure to your state Labor mates and get this road built where we said the funding was meant to go, where constituents in my electorate expected the funding to go and where Gold Coasters rightfully have an expectation that this money will be used to fix this road. We can have the audits, we can have all sorts of claims from the state Labor government about the Infrastructure Australia Bill, but if you do not actually deliver local projects like this then it will be absolutely meaningless and not worth the paper it is written on.

I will leave my remarks on the Infrastructure Australia Bill at that. I came into this debate wanting to accept the good intentions of the infrastructure minister, wanting to believe the claims that have been made by members opposite, wanting to believe that this bill will herald a new day in Australian infrastructure needs. For far too long—for nearly a decade—we have seen next to no action on infrastructure by state Labor governments. The Rudd Labor government now have the chance to demonstrate in a very material sense that they will actually improve the lot of ordinary Australians, that they will stand by their promises and ensure that there is investment in infrastructure to improve the lifestyle and the public amenity of all the cities and regions in Australia. But if it is just hot air, if we just see that the track record is the same as it has been in every Labor state and territory, then this bill will not be worth the paper it is written on—and that is my fear. I hope to stand here in 12 months and be proven wrong by the new Rudd Labor government, but again I make a very conservative suggestion: I will not be. I suggest that in 12 months time the Rudd Labor government will be coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why nothing has happened, we will see this new spirit of federalism in existence and we will wonder why the Rudd Labor government has not been able to achieve much at all. There are a few key measures: let us see if the Gold Coast hospital is built, let us see if the M1 is widened and let us make sure that we have new water infrastructure, new education infrastructure and better roads on the Gold Coast. Those are the KPIs that will be asked of the infrastructure minister. That is the kind of investment I will be looking for. Anything less than that will be another F for fail by the Labor Party.

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