Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Here are the facts. Labor’s claims to care about the transport infrastructure system ring false. The 2009-10 budget provides for nearly $2 billion less than it is spending on land transport infrastructure in 2008-09. On your own budget papers, you are less $2 billion this year than last year. Despite all the spin and branding undertaken by Labor, it is not delivering true and proper support to the national land transport network.

This bill is what we have come to expect from the Rudd government. The amendments in the Nation Building Program (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2009 demonstrate how the government does not support regional Australia. This is my next point. The government is not supporting regional Australia, and that is why the member for Dawson should be standing and joining with me as a colleague. The member for Solomon from regional Australia should also be standing with me demanding our fair share of the government largesse that is currently being spent in the metropolitan areas. A large proportion of the funding for new projects will be spent in urban areas. Regional Australia misses out yet again. The Rudd government seems concerned only with urban Australia, and I am disappointed that my fellow regional colleagues are not supporting me in standing up for regional Australia.

The amendments in this bill alter part 6 in the AusLink (National Land Transport) Act 2005. Under the coalition government’s strategic regional program—and ‘regional’ is important: it is our area, guys—funding was provided to projects not on the national land transport network, most notably in regional areas. The coalition understands the needs of regional Australia and supported valuable projects in such areas. Surprise, surprise! The Rudd government intends to revoke the support for regional Australia. Member for Dawson, I hope you are listening. This bill revokes support for regional Australia. It seeks to do this by amending section 55 to rename the Strategic Regional Project the Nation Building Program Off-Network Project. Under this change, the funds previously earmarked for regional projects could now go to an urban area and, under the track record of the Labor government, will likely go to an urban area.

Labor’s target is the language of the act. Attempts to remove the word ‘regional’ are at the heart of this. But these amendments do more than alter language. They are telling of the Rudd government’s priorities. I fear for North Queensland. I fear we are going to get less and less money allocated to our dangerous road system. Their telling of regional industries become only industries. Regional communities become only communities. The bill is trying to delete regional Australia from the program, and I am strongly opposed to these changes. I want ‘regional’ remaining in the language of the government and the language of the act. It is very important that the parliament sends a message to the bureaucracy and to the people of Australia that ‘regional’ is important.

The bill also seeks to allow areas on the national land transport network to be entitled to funding under the Black Spot Program. This is a large change. Councils will be very unhappy with this. The Black Spot Program, originally established by the coalition government, is designed for local roads. It is unfortunate that parts of our national highway are dangerous. Provision and funding for areas on the national network already exist. These areas should not be funded at the expense of funding dangerous local roads. Surely that is common sense. I do not understand why the Rudd government is taking away a very sensible coalition program. It is, of course, something that affects our local councils so much.

Under the amendments contained in this bill, the Black Spot Program itself is subject to a name change. The ‘AusLink Black Spot Program’ becomes the ‘Nation Building Black Spot Program’. The Rudd government is determined to rebrand AusLink as its own. It is undertaking renaming policies on a project as important as this one.

The Rudd government has driven Australia into debt and lost its focus on regional Australia. It is a government that is unable to manage the Australian economy and, in fact, it has lost control of our nation’s finances. It is clearly unwilling to demonstrate the same commitment as the coalition to the national land transport network. In a failed attempt to distract from all of these things, it engages in needless spin.

I want to return to where I started—back to regional Australia and particularly North Queensland. Yes, there is some money announced in the budget for the Douglas arterial duplication—that was announced a year ago. There is money in the budget for the Cardwell Range realignment—that was announced a year ago. There is work on the Townsville port access road, which was announced a year ago. But the spin is to try to get North Queenslanders to think, ‘These are new projects.’ But they are not new projects. They were announced a year ago. You cannot keep claiming credit for the same project as if it were a new project, because people will see it for what it is—government spin.

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