Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I hear interjections from opposite about these being state responsibilities. If you look at the cost of any one of those major projects for metro Australia, whether we are talking about Sydney or Melbourne or other transport projects for elsewhere across Australia’s capital cities, these are megaprojects. The response of those opposite is to say: ‘Not our problem. Buck pass to the states—blame the states. Not our job.’ Our response is: let’s be part of the national solution, not just be part of a carping national problem, which those opposite seem to specialise in.

We are proud of our investment plans for the nation’s future. The money invested in these funds for the future—$40 billion—is not our money; it is not the Liberal Party’s money; it is taxpayers’ money. What we have decided to do through this budget is invest their money back into the priorities which they themselves identified: transport infrastructure, ports, roads, broadband, as well as the needs in our TAFE system, our university system and our health and hospital system.

We believe this is the right way forward. It will take time to do, but we are determined to embark upon this course of nation building for Australia’s future and we are proud of this plan; it is core to the government’s budget strategy.

See this speech in context