Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Brisbane for that question. The creation of the Building Australia Fund announced last night, together with the establishment of Infrastructure Australia, once again reaffirms that it is Labor that is the nation-building party for this country. It is an unprecedented overhaul of the way that we think about infrastructure coordination for the nation. The Commonwealth government is back—we are back—in the business of nation building. We are setting about repairing years of neglect by those opposite. We all know that capacity constraints at our ports, on our roads and in our rail lines all add to inflationary pressures in the economy. Congested roads and rail lines add to the cost of moving freight from the farm gate to the kitchen table and from the mines to the ports. It adds to the cost of doing business.

That is why the business community, including the Business Council of Australia, ACCI even and other organisations such as Engineers Australia, have all applauded the Building Australia Fund, just as they all supported the creation of Infrastructure Australia—because they know that the previous government did not invest for the future, did not build for the future and did not plan for the future. The only thing they had a plan for was the next election. Of course, the infrastructure failure of those opposite does not have just an economic cost; there is a social cost. Urban congestion means that many working families spend more time in their cars commuting to and from work than they spend at home with their kids.

Last night, the Rudd government proudly began the long process of reversing 12 years of neglect. By establishing Infrastructure Australia, we established the way forward. Yesterday we provided the means to back up that commitment. The $20 billion Building Australia Fund will secure investment in Australia’s infrastructure. It will enable the Commonwealth to attack infrastructure bottlenecks in regional Australia that are restricting our export potential. It is also a loud announcement that the Commonwealth is back in the business of our cities and that we will engage in infrastructure in our cities, including public transport. It comes on top of the establishment two weeks ago, as we announced, of the Major Cities Unit, which will work with Infrastructure Australia.

But we are not sitting back waiting for the $20 billion to come online. We are investing $75 million, as announced last night, to do the planning now on important projects for Australia’s future. As part of our commitment to end the blame game, the states will kick in a further $57½ million dollars, bringing the total to $132.5 million. In Melbourne, we will look at improving the east-west road and rail connections through the recommendations of the Eddington report, and we are looking at advancing planning for the Western Ring Road. In Brisbane, we are planning the Gateway Motorway missing links. In north and Far North Queensland, we are planning for the $2.2 billion that we have committed to fix up the Bruce Highway—improvements in Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and Gladstone. In Sydney, we are looking at the western metro line, a visionary urban public transport plan that would not have been touched by those opposite. There is the M5 duplication, which will assist in getting trucks to the port and off our urban roads. In Adelaide, there is a transport sustainability study. In Perth, we are looking at the airport transport master plan, including a rail link.

Doing this work now means that we will be ready to go when the $20 billion fund comes online. This comes on top of the government’s commitment to invest $25.8 billion between now and 2013-14 under AusLink. It was also added to in the budget last night by bringing forward $560 million in funding to get early starts on our election commitments: the Ballina bypass, the new Perth to Bunbury Highway, the Northern Expressway in Adelaide and the Townsville port access road. We are getting on with the job.

But those opposite continue to criticise this plan for infrastructure, and maybe there is a hint as to why they do that in the Leader of the Opposition’s comments on ABC radio in Queensland last month. Those comments highlight a big difference between the Labor approach and the approach of the Liberal and National parties, because this is what the Leader of the Opposition said:

In terms of infrastructure the Federal Government is primarily responsible for airport infrastructure. That’s it.

That is their approach to nation building and infrastructure. The Rudd government will end the neglect that occurred under those opposite over 12 years. It is no wonder that the business community has been unanimous in its support for the plan announced by the Treasurer in last night’s budget. (Time expired)

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