Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It is one thing to come in here and talk about these things but you have to build the roads. You wait for us to get into government and when Labor gets into government we take on the hard job of going out and building the roads. We do it and we are very proud of it. We like the fact that we do that.

This is a fantastic statistic, believe it or not. It took more than 100 years for us to line up a bit of rail gauge between New South Wales and Queensland. It is right in my electorate too, believe it or not, and it is the Acacia Ridge depot track upgrade. We spent nearly $60 million on the Queensland-New South Wales border on that rail gauge. It took 100 years. Why did it take so long? The previous government could have looked at this, but why would they have?

During the Howard years they had a policy of the federal government not getting involved in infrastructure projects; that was a job for the states and local government. We disagreed, vehemently, and we still do today. It is a responsibility of the federal government to get involved. There are some projects that, maybe, only the federal government can get involved in and fund. It ought to be done, where possible, in partnership with local communities, local councils, local builders and construction companies and with state governments—I do not care which state government. Let us build those roads. Let us go to Dawson electorate and Hinkler electorate and to the good National Party heartland seats. We will get further north as well; I will not leave any of you out. We will do that. We will make a commitment.

People talk about debt and talk about a range of things. There is good debt and there is bad debt. If you are borrowing money to buy a house, most people in the community understand that because you are going to get something back from that house and you are going to live in it. Where funding is needed, that is what you do. That is how funding works and it is the right thing to do. Funding works for your community and increases productivity. It makes people's lives better and reduces congestion. I have a local example in reverse in the state seat of Mount Ommaney. Prior to the last election the new member coming in said that she would definitely fund and would definitely upgrade the Sumners Road Interchange over the Centenary Motorway. (Time expired)

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