Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to speak on this motion. I commend the member for Oxley for bringing it before the House. It is great to be speaking on it at a time when this Labor government is committed to playing its part in building and investing in the infrastructure of our country—the infrastructure our regions need in order to prosper. In preparing for this motion I was hard-pressed to think about what I would have spoken about a year ago. Over the past 10 years I have given a lot of speeches in this House about infrastructure, but in the past they have usually been about what was not being done in the area of infrastructure provision and the problems that was causing. There was nothing you could really talk about under the previous government’s term when it came to the points in this motion, such as infrastructure planning to provide the platform for regional economic growth, an agenda of creating a stronger and more participatory regional development structure through the establishment of Infrastructure Australia and Regional Development Australia and a commitment to regional development and the delivery of regionally significant infrastructure. They are all points in this motion and they are all points about which we now thankfully have something to say, because this government has made infrastructure planning and investment a priority.

In fact, one of the first pieces of legislation brought into the new parliament this year was the Infrastructure Australia Act, which came into effect on 9 April. Infrastructure Australia will develop a strategic blueprint for Australia’s future infrastructure needs. In partnership—and partnership was something else you did not hear much about under the previous government—with the states, territories, local government and the private sector it will facilitate its implementation. Infrastructure Australia will also provide advice to Australian governments about infrastructure gaps and bottlenecks that hinder economic growth and prosperity. It will identify investment priorities and policy and regulatory reforms that will be necessary to enable timely and coordinated delivery of national infrastructure investment. That is something that this country has been crying out for. For too long the former government cherry-picked projects for their political value and blamed the states for everything else. When it comes to infrastructure, we need clear, strategic priorities that will grow this nation, not pork-barrelling to grow someone’s margin. That is the planning side of things, but there is also the investment side that is important to get things moving.

Not long after Infrastructure Australia was established in April this year the Labor government showed in the budget that we are serious about investing in infrastructure as well. We need to get moving on some of these bottlenecks that have been holding back our productivity and contributing to inflationary pressures. The Labor government announced in the budget the Building Australia Fund, an initial $20 billion from the budget surpluses expected this year and in 2008-09. This is money that, in the years to come, will be used to build critical economic infrastructure such as roads, rail, ports and, of course—we cannot forget—broadband. We have to get moving on this task of building our national infrastructure after years of neglect, infrastructure that will underpin growth in regions like the one I represent, allow us to make the most of our opportunities and ultimately set Australia up for a strong future.

In the time I have left I want to report on two infrastructure priorities in my electorate that I am pleased to say are receiving some much-needed attention as a result of this government’s commitment to getting on with the job of fixing our overstretched infrastructure. As members here would know, my electorate of Capricornia in Central Queensland is at the heart of the coal mining boom. The increase in people and heavy vehicles using the roads around Mackay, in particular, has tested the capacity of both the Bruce Highway and the Peak Downs Highway. As part of the $2.2 billion promised by Labor out of AusLink 2, there will be major improvements to the stretch of Bruce Highway in my electorate running between Childers and Sarina. This includes money for fixing black spots, for providing overtaking lanes and for strengthening and widening the highway.

In good news for the people at the northern end of the electorate of Capricornia, work is already underway on one of Labor’s election promises, the duplication of the highway from Bakers Creek to the city gates in Mackay. The other notorious road in my electorate is the Peak Downs highway linking Mackay with the mines and towns of the Bowen Basin. The spot where the highway crosses the Eton Range has claimed more lives than anyone cares to remember and needs serious improvement to become a safe and efficient road. I am pleased to say that the Prime Minister has committed to partnering with the state government. We are putting in $1 million to investigate a realignment of the highway over that dangerous Eton Range crossing. (Time expired)

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