Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note that last intervention from the member for Brisbane. It fails to address one core fact in the debate in the last week in Brisbane on the provision of public transport services. She raises the question of fares. In fact, what has been floated by the Liberal National Party government through the pages of The Courier Mail in the last week is the proposal to increase train fares during peak times in order to deal with the impending crisis in Brisbane's passenger rail network.

Secondly, the way of dealing with such a crisis is in fact to proceed with a project which the member has herself locally backed but which her national leader has publicly repudiated, and that is the Cross River Rail. The Cross River Rail was proposed initially with a feasibility study when I was Prime Minister of the country, with $20 million. It was put to Infrastructure Australia and subsequently with the support of the state Liberal National Party government—and prior to that, the state Labor government—it was approved as a priority Infrastructure Australia project. The state government asked for $715 million from the federal government. It wrote a letter through state transport minister, Minister Emerson. Each of the conditions was met by the federal transport minister, Anthony Albanese.

Then on budget night, they walked away from the project. Therefore, we have had the member for Brisbane jumping up and down locally saying that she sort of supports this project, but her federal leader has now repudiated it. State transport minister Emerson has gone around the place saying, 'Well, we kind of like this thing. I know that I have written to the minister about it. I know that I have asked for $715 million. I know that I have promised to actually match it but, whoops, the national leader, Mr Abbott, has said that they cannot do that because they cannot be seen to be politically cooperating with the federal Labor government.'

This is just part of a broader picture. It goes to the provision of public transport services across all of Brisbane. No. 1, we have been talking about the Cross River Rail, which until budget night had bipartisan support. No. 2, we are talking about local bus services, which the Liberal National Party government took a meat axe to in their statement as a government some months ago. Members such as those supporting this motion rose up as one in support of their local communities and, as a result, the state Liberal National Party government ran a million miles, passed a $20 million hospital pass to the Liberal National Party Brisbane City Council and said, 'You find the savings but, please, don't find those savings until after the federal election.' There is absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that these bus routes will be preserved in the future once a certain electoral event occurs.

This is part and parcel of a broader phenomenon that we see unfolding from the Liberal National Party in Brisbane in particular. We have had them rip the guts out of health services at our hospitals because of the cut by the state government of 4,000-plus health workers.

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