Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and recognise his keen interest in the economic development of his area and indeed all parts of Victoria and, for that matter, all other Australian states. The coalition is getting on with the business of providing the economic infrastructure that is so important to building a strong economy and a strong nation.

In the member's home state of Victoria there have already been a number of significant announcements about major new road projects. The East-West Link to which the Commonwealth has committed to provide $1.5 billion will certainly make a big difference to traffic flows in central Melbourne. That is an important project that is illustrative of the work that we intend to do to help make our economic infrastructure able to support stronger economies, jobs growth and additional community infrastructure right across the state.

In South Australia, we have also made announcements in relation to the north-south road and our commitment to improve that corridor and make a real difference to Adelaide and its capability to service growing industry. They are part of a comprehensive national plan. We intend to make further announcements about our commitments to economic infrastructure over the days and months ahead to build a strong national road and transport network that can deliver the very best possible results for our nation.

The coalition has also announced $342 million worth of projects under our community development grants program. That includes 86 projects worth $53 million in Victoria and a further 19 projects worth $26 million in South Australia. Those sorts of projects will help local communities to get some of the important economic and social infrastructure that they need to be strong even when their communities suffer setbacks, and particularly setbacks associated the closures of important industries.

The question asked about the impediments that there are to delivering this kind of important economic infrastructure, and they are obvious. There are impediments like the mining tax and the carbon tax, taxes that we are trying to get rid of because they hold back industry in this country but taxes that the Labor Party seem to want to entrench in our economy. Labor seems to have lost track of the fact that if you want to have a strong economy it has to have strong economic infrastructure to support it. It needs the taxes that impede industry removed. It is time that Labor got out of the way and let us deliver on this important economic reform.

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