Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When Labor came to government in 2007, it inherited a mismanaged and politically-driven system of infrastructure investment. Productivity ran a very poor second to politics, and the national interest lost out to the interests of the National Party. So, in 2008, the previous Labor government created a new system for the delivery of infrastructure which took a new approach. We stated that, to secure Australia's future prosperity, it was necessary to decouple the infrastructure investment cycle—which necessarily needed to be long term—from the political cycle, which, in the experience of those opposite, is much shorter.

That is why the previous Labor government created Infrastructure Australia as an independent adviser to government, asked it to assess the nation's infrastructure needs and created a priority list of projects which Infrastructure Australia's experts believed would do the most to boost national productivity. The previous Labor government laid a foundation for a rational, integrated and evidence-based policy framed on the basis of the national economic benefit. In contrast, on infrastructure the coalition wants to end integrated, evidence-based delivery of roads, ports, railway lines, public transport and many other works which go towards improving our standards of living and our economic productivity.

Infrastructure Australia's independent, expert-led process has found that, in my electorate, the Melbourne metro rail tunnel is Victoria's No. 1 infrastructure priority. By 2025, Melbourne's population will hit five million. Urban traffic congestion is a national problem which, if not combated, will cost us $20 billion a year in lost productivity by 2020. As the chair of infrastructure Australia has said:

… unless the rail networks are right, the cities won’t work properly.

The Infrastructure Australia endorsed Melbourne metro rail project aims to increase the capacity and reliability of Melbourne's public transport network to support growth and to handle the demand driven by our ever-increasing population. This project, which is listed as ready to proceed by Infrastructure Australia, will provide capacity for an additional 24,000 passengers per year initially, rising to an additional 60,000 passengers per year. By 2030, 140,000 passengers will be able to use the Melbourne metro during the morning peak.

Infrastructure Australia is recommending that we make a generational investment to benefit the entire Melbourne metropolitan rail network by increasing capacity in order to relieve congestion and accommodate future growth. The Melbourne metro rail is the 21st century city loop. Those opposite may consider supporting it, given that the original Melbourne city loop was introduced by those known socialists Dick Hamer and Henry Bolte!

Of course, commuters in Melbourne's west will see none of the benefits of the Melbourne metro rail project because, for purely ideological and political reasons, Tony Abbott has ruled out any Commonwealth funding for urban public transport infrastructure. He said that he wants to be the 'Infrastructure Prime Minister'—the Prime Minister of 21st century infrastructure. But it seems that there has been a typo, because the PM really wants to be the PM of 1st century infrastructure: of the roads which have been built since the Roman age, not of the rail and broadband investments of the next century.

Before the last election, Tony Abbott told the Australian public that the Commonwealth government had 'no history of funding urban rail' and that the government should 'stick to its knitting' and only fund road projects. These comments are, of course, factually inaccurate, and the $3.3 billion on federal funding for the regional rail link project in my own electorate can adequately attest to their inaccuracy. In fact, based on independent economic analysis provided by Infrastructure Australia, the previous Labor government committed a record $13.6 billion towards urban public transport infrastructure projects. This was a responsible, grown-up way for government to plan infrastructure investment. In contrast, the Abbott government has left commuters in Australia's cities stranded by refusing to invest a single cent in public transport infrastructure on the basis of nothing more than an ideologically driven arts-and-crafts analogy.

It is not only those of us on this side of the House who are baffled by the government's position; the Victorian Liberal party cannot understand it either. The Napthine government likes to pretend that it supports public transport in Victoria—though, like those opposite, it had a lot more to say about public transport than it has actually done on public transport while in government. Nonetheless, the Napthine government likes to pretend that it will one day deliver the Melbourne metro rail tunnel for Victorian commuters.

Understandably for a project of the metro rail tunnel's size, there has long been an expectation in the Victorian government that Commonwealth funding will be required to deliver it. Given this, Tony Abbott's—the then leader of the opposition's—outright opposition to public transport funding put the Victorian Premier in a bit of a difficult position. Denis Napthine sought to soften perceptions of the then opposition leader's stubborn opposition to the project by telling Victorians:

I've certainly had some discussions about Tony Abbott's issue with a rail tunnel and he's softened …

…   …   …

He's indicated to me they're prepared to have ongoing discussions on key infrastructure like the metro rail tunnel.

But Tony Abbott did not take the hint. He immediately batted down his Victorian Liberal colleague, saying:

I would dispute that's the case … What I say in public and what I say in private is the same ... we will not be committing to the—

Melbourne—

metro rail scheme. I've made that absolutely … clear.

Maybe the Victorian Premier would have had better luck if he had been asking for a no-strings-attached cheque from the education minister. Maybe he could have snuck it through then. The Melbourne Metro rail tunnel will not be delivered unless we have the Labor government, federally and at the state level— (Time expired)

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