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

Those opposite dismiss this reform, because they simply forgot about the productivity agenda during their last period in office. They may have their position, but the conservatives around the country do not agree with them. The New South Wales opposition has promised to introduce Infrastructure New South Wales. The Tasmanian opposition are running in the Tasmanian election on introducing Infrastructure Tasmania. Infrastructure Australia visited New Zealand to help the incoming conservative government establish a similar body in New Zealand. Elsewhere around the globe, the UK government have announced the creation of Infrastructure UK. All of these bodies have been created based on the model established here in Australia. That model has led to real investment—record investment, in road and rail. It is not acknowledged by those opposite. Indeed the shadow finance minister had this to say:

Can you take me to the area where the massive new sort of rail infrastructure is or can you take me to the area where the major roads are. They’re not there, and the money is gone, but we’ve got nothing for it.

That is the attitude of those opposite. I say to them: go to the Ipswich Motorway, go to the Bruce Highway, go to the Pacific Highway, go to the Hume Highway and go to the national rail network, which now exists from Perth to Brisbane for the first time as a result of the economic stimulus plan of this government. They simply do not get it. That is why, in Senate estimates a couple of weeks ago, they asked no serious questions about infrastructure and they did not ask a single question about the national port strategy or the national freight strategy that Infrastructure Australia is delivering; they did spend half an hour asking about the number of pot plants in my office, because that was the priority of those opposite, because they simply do not take the infrastructure challenge of this country seriously.

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