Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear interjections from two members from Queensland on the other side saying, ‘Have you seen what is happening in Queensland?’ Yes I have. I have seen what is happening in Queensland. If only the previous government, the Howard government, had had enough foresight, just a little bit of foresight, to say we should invest not in the states but in critical infrastructure for all Australians.

State governments come and go, but Australian people live right across this country. We needed the Commonwealth in the past decade to invest in infrastructure—in the Ipswich Motorway, which cost our local economy so dearly, in the Bruce Highway and on critical jobs in rail and port. We hear members say, ‘Pick me.’ You talk now about getting things done, but while the Liberal-National parties were in government, they did not deliver. They now criticise us—

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