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

This will directly employ—since you ask for the figures—650 people in the Hunter. That is 650 people, and it is supported by the member for Hunter, supported by the member for Charlton, supported by the member for Newcastle and supported by the member for Shortland. The member for Paterson, however, votes against jobs in his local community.

We are investing $125 million to replace old wood rail sleepers with new concrete rail sleepers in order to increase efficiency on the network, creating local jobs in factories and employing extra people right now as a result of our commitment in December. Those people are being employed in Geelong, in Wagga Wagga, in Grafton, in Mittagong—these are jobs for regional Australia. And we are not only doing it through road and rail; we are doing it through community infrastructure.

As COAG was meeting, there was also today the inaugural meeting of the steering committee of the Australian Council of Local Government. Regardless of political colour, background and ideology, it came together with an absolute consensus: that we need to get on with the job of nation building and providing jobs in local communities. Every single one of those mayors has welcomed our $800 million community infrastructure package—the package that those opposite voted against—with those local programs being delivered around the nation. They also agreed that local government will play its part in assisting the COAG agenda that was being debated at the same time, making sure that the development applications for local schools get fast tracked and that we get those jobs on the ground in those local communities. But much of that funding, of course, is in jeopardy due to the reckless attitude of those opposite—the reckless, opportunistic attitude of those opposite, who, at the same time as they were voting against it, were lobbying me around the corridors of the house yesterday, asking for programs in their electorates to be funded. That is the hypocrisy that we see from those opposite. We will see whether they support these programs put forward by local government in those communities.

Of course, they are confused. Their strategy is dazed and confused. Yesterday, the Manager of Opposition Business said this on 2UE: ‘We’re not blocking it; we’re voting against it.’ It got better. Today, on Sunrise, he said: ‘If it’s too good to be true when people receive all these handouts, it is not true. It is not real.’ Well, when the Senate passes a program of $950, they will know that it is real. I do not think the Manager of Opposition Business can ever make an interjection like that again. But it gets better, because, on radio 2UE on 5 February, he said this: ‘When somebody holds a gun to my head, you know, maybe it’s a bit silly, but I say, “Well, mate, pull the trigger.”’ I say this to the member for North Sydney: your leader has done it. Your leader has done it to everyone along the front bench and along the back bench by opposing community infrastructure, by opposing nation building, by opposing jobs in local communities. That is exactly what the Leader of the Opposition has done, because he is not interested in nation building; he is just interested in himself.

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