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

This government has embarked upon a course of action which does not simply perpetuate the blame game of the past. This government believes that when it comes to the nation’s future challenges you work with state and territory governments, Labor and Liberal. We intend to work as closely with the state government of New South Wales as we will do with the state government of Western Australia. The state government of Western Australia has an interest when it comes to the future—it is in how we partner with them in infrastructure investments—and that is the interest of all responsible state governments.

The difference is this: state governments in the past, when they approached the previous Liberal government for assistance on infrastructure, were simply given the cold shoulder. The previous Liberal government was not interested. The previous Liberal government—and the member for Higgins will recall this very well—said that when it came to infrastructure that was exclusively a state responsibility.

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