Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister and it relates to Infrastructure Australia. I of course come from Cairns in tropical North Queensland. Infrastructure is the backbone of regional and rural Australia, and it is extremely important that we take a long-term view, plan effectively and invest in infrastructure in regional and rural Australia.

I want to take up a couple of issues that the Leader of the National Party has raised because they go to the heart of the out-of-touchness of the National Party. The comments were made that we are only spending in Labor electorates. The reality is that there are no coalition electorates in rural seats north of Bundaberg in Queensland. So what is the Leader of the National Party saying? We should not invest in infrastructure north of Bundaberg? If we go up there, there is the member for Flynn, the member for Capricornia, the member for Dawson, then the Independent in Kennedy and then the member for Leichhardt. The member for Herbert is a Liberal and he looks after a provincial city, not a regional or rural area. So the reality is that we are representing your regional and rural Australia. We are about ensuring that we have good quality infrastructure up there.

The community are excited about the $20 billion Building Australia Fund. What they are particularly interested in is the fact that that fund is well spent, well planned and invested correctly. An important part of that is Infrastructure Australia. My community are particularly interested in Infrastructure Australia—how that is going to work and how we are going to spend that $20 billion. I want to congratulate the minister on that. My community are particularly interested in learning more about Infrastructure Australia.

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