Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

It would be helpful if the member for Paterson was a little more patient and would allow me to finish what I am saying. There was nothing except for around $50 million which was dribbled into the program by the Howard government, which I accept and am happy to say kept the project somewhat alive. That money mainly went to land acquisitions. As we all know, land acquisitions tend to make bodies like the then RTA money along the way if indeed a project does not proceed. The land is bought now. In 10 years time if the project does not proceed, of course the land is sold again, usually at a healthy profit. I am not suggesting there is anything wrong with that. But it does not mean there was ever commitment to construction.

The key point here is that in 11½ years not a sod of dirt was turned. I do acknowledge again that the project was kept alive by the then Howard government. I also acknowledge that we did not have an enthusiastic state Labor government. I am happy to acknowledge that. I am always happy to criticise state Labor governments when they get it wrong, as they occasionally do. This is a project worth $1.7 billion. You can understand why a state government would be reluctant to participate. Any contribution by them, even if it is only 10 per cent of the project, is obviously a very large one. It is true that the New South Wales government was reluctant. Indeed, I do not think the member for Grayndler would mind me saying this. As the former Labor government, when we announced that we would undertake this project, the New South Wales government remained very reluctant. The member for Grayndler had to be very persuasive in his approaches to the New South Wales government to get them on board. Eventually they did come on board and they have contributed $200 million to the project. So it was a Labor government that conceived the project, it was a Labor government that planned the project, it was a Labor government that eventually funded and built the project. That is uncontestable.

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