Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I would say the following to the member for Gilmore: I understand she comes to this parliament and does seek to represent the concerns of her constituents in this parliament. That is why, of course, she was such a big endorser of the government’s trade training centres policy: because of the benefits of the trade training centre to her electorate; and that is why she must have been so distressed to see that the Leader of the Opposition wanted to cut that funding. Consequently, because I do believe that the member for Gilmore does seek to raise concerns on behalf of her constituents, I would say to her that if there is a specific matter she wants me to look at, then I will look at it.

But I will also say to the member for Gilmore—and to this parliament more generally when we look at the challenges of the future for this country—we need to build infrastructure. We need to build the NBN. We need to renovate ports and we need to renovate the rail system. We need to build roads. As every Australian knows as a simple matter of common sense, when you build complex infrastructure projects that does cause some dislocation as infrastructure projects are being rolled out. I live in Melbourne’s west and I can tell you about infrastructure projects on the Princes Freeway and the Westgate Bridge. Of course, when they were being constructed, there were consequences.

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