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

I thank the member for Hasluck for her question. At the COAG meeting chaired by the Prime Minister this morning, all state premiers and chief ministers agreed to sign up to the new nation-building program by 1 March—and I thank the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, who is here today, for being a part of that. They therefore will be eligible for funding under the government’s $150 million increase in road maintenance, available and intended to be spent this financial year for economic stimulus and to make our roads safer.

This program, the nation-building program from 2009-13, is the biggest road and rail investment program in the history of the Commonwealth. The investment is $27 billion, with the Commonwealth contributing $22.3 billion. It means that we can get on with the job of working together—the Commonwealth and the states and territories—to build our road and our rail network and to provide jobs and economic stimulus around the nation. And we are getting on with the job. I announced, through a media release earlier today, that construction work has now commenced on the 36 kilometre southern ydney freight line. That is a $309 million project. I have been asked about how many jobs. There are 500 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs. This is a 36 kilometre dedicated freight line that will unclog the single largest bottleneck on New South Wales’s interstate rail network.

Last December, as part of our nation-building package, we announced an additional $1.2 billion through the ARTC for 17 rail projects to be rolled out across the country to enhance freight movement and to create local jobs. This will see freight times along the Melbourne to Brisbane corridor reduced from 37 hours to 26 hours—a 30 per cent improvement. Our largest investment is in the Hunter—$1 billion.

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