Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy if coalition members do not want to use all their time. I will gladly take up their time as well as mine. The bill before the House, the Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill 2014, is really important. Infrastructure is one of the most important things that we could be discussing—about how we move an economy, move people, move freight, and how we build this country. The government claims they have an infrastructure Prime Minister, but they barely have anything to say—they finished early. I find that extraordinary.

The Nation Building Program is very important. I am glad to see that the Liberals and Nationals actually have a skerrick of decency and will keep it. I am surprised we are not in here discussing why they are not getting rid of it—perhaps to save money. It seems the only purpose of governments these days is to save money—their own money, not necessarily someone else's money.

The Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill 2014 will maintain basically the things that were in place under Labor, which is a good thing. I certainly welcome the belated interest of the Liberals and Nationals in nation-building programs and even in infrastructure. So much is it belated that they have tried to make a really big point by calling the Prime Minister 'the infrastructure Prime Minister'. He is so far removed from it that they somehow need to associate him and infrastructure. So they thought, 'Why don't we just combine the two'! That is not going to fool anyone because, when they were last in government, they just could not be bothered.

I remember their very famous words—whether they were from Tony Abbott or John Howard—that they would stick to their knitting, that it was not the responsibility of the federal government, that it is always someone else's responsibility. But actions speak louder than words. What they did in response to get back to their knitting was to slash $2 billion from infrastructure, from the federal roads budget. How can you put any faith in the Liberal Party, and particularly in the National Party, which should be about roads and infrastructure, when last time they had the opportunity to deal with these matters they slashed $2 billion from the budget?

The ministers and a number of coalition members in this place have mentioned a dozen major projects that were either announced or funded by the federal Labor government. We are happy for the government to talk about our projects, no matter what they do to try to claim them or rename them. Labor put $6.7 billion towards the upgrade of the Bruce Highway. We did more on that in our short six years than the Howard government ever did in their 12 years, including when Warren Truss was the transport minister.

In terms of spending, we did more in our short six years than the previous coalition government did in their very long 12 years. We put in $5.6 billion to finish the duplication of the Pacific Highway, a billion dollars to continue the Gateway Motorway North upgrade in Brisbane—deliverables which have been completed. I am driving on some of the new roads which we built. We spent $686 million to finish the Gateway WA project in Perth. This mob here claim that they love the west, but no, they are not going to fund the west. When we visited the west, we turned up with some hard, cold cash. We got on the with the job to finish the Gateway WA. We spent $615 million to build the Swan Valley bypass on the Perth to Darwin Highway, $500 million for the upgrade of the South Road in Adelaide, $405 million for F3 to M2 link project in Sydney, and $400 million to continue the Midland Highway upgrade in Tasmania—in total, Labor committed $500 million to that project. Labor also spent $300 million to finalise the plans and engineering design.

Mr Chester interjecting—

It was taxpayers' money but it was Labor that committed it to the project to serve the taxpayer; you are cutting it out. You are taking it from the taxpayer but not spending it on infrastructure. That is the big point of difference. I thank you for the interjection.

Labor also allocated $1.8 billion to the WestConnex project in Sydney, subject to conditions of course, including a proper business case. Federal Labor's record on infrastructure is admirable, it is enviable. It is a track record proven by the projects we actually did. We worked alongside state governments and local governments. We worked in partnership with Liberal governments and with Labor governments—it did not matter because the job of nation-building is not about the colour of your party logo; it is about what you can do to build the nation. We had an objective for far-reaching reforms that we implemented—unprecedented capital works programs. Under Labor, Australia went to second in the international league table which ranks OECD countries by the scale of their investment in fixed capital. When we left office, our nation was investing more than any other major advanced economy, with the exception of South Korea. We were leading the world. Total annual investment in our nation's roads, ports, railways, energy generators, water supply facilities and telecommunication networks hit a record $58.5 billion. We did that in the tough years. We did that during the global financial crisis. When other economies were shrinking we were growing. We invested in capital infrastructure and in the capacity for our economy to grow so as to create jobs. We made sure that we invested in all the things that could help business and could help ordinary Australians.

When the Howard government was in office, in the heady days when rivers of gold used to flow into Canberra, they did the total opposite. There was no investment in our national economy and no investment in infrastructure. Labor's annual average infrastructure spending, in real terms, was up 59 per cent when compared to the last full year of the former Howard government, 2006-07. Total public and private sector infrastructure spending over federal Labor's last five years in office was almost $250 billion, which was almost 70 per cent more, in real terms, than the $150 billion spent during the last five years of the Howard government. Annual infrastructure spending by the public sector alone was greater than two per cent of GDP for the first time in a quarter of a century. This is good stuff. This is good news. This is what we actually did. This is history, not something you are going to do in the never-never.

Federal Labor restored national leadership in infrastructure through the appointment of Australia's first ever federal infrastructure minister and the creation of a federal infrastructure department. We did that because we understood it was important. In order to deliver on infrastructure, you have to have a minister responsible for it and a department that works on it. We established Infrastructure Australia to overhaul things and drive lasting improvements. It was a body removed from the political process benefiting Liberal Party and National Party held seats; it was without discrimination. This was done because it was important. Over two-thirds of all infrastructure spending, went to country—rural and regional areas—but that did not matter; it went to where the need was greatest. That is why we established Infrastructure Australia and the Building Australia Fund. We worked on these things for many years in opposition to make sure that we could do them well when we did get into government—the wheel turns; we all know that. Those who have been here long enough will know that you ain't here forever. We developed the National Public Private Partnership Policy and Guidelines to make it easier and cheaper for the private sector to get involved in large infrastructure projects. We also published long-term blueprints for a truly national integrated multimodal transport system because, again, it was important to move the national economy.

I am always happy to welcome and support anything done by the Liberals and Nationals, regardless of how much money they rip out of the system. If they do only one good thing, however small, I will say 'Well done, boys, welcome to the club'. I will say 'Welcome to the infrastructure spending club'. It is a club in which you understand that in order to move, particularly in the regions, you need to spend some money. Federal Labor committed $60 billion, as part of our national building programs, to build a modern, well-planned transport infrastructure to help make the lives of working people and business people easier, to make our economy more competitive and productive. We made sure rural and regional communities got their fair share, with almost two-thirds of our infrastructure funding going to projects located outside major cities. We called them Nation Building projects, not National Party building projects. We were about building a nation. Federal Labor doubled the roads budget to $46.5 billion and upgraded 7,500 kilometres of road. We lifted local government road grants by 20 per cent.

In contrast, the present Liberal and National government committed to Melbourne's East West Link and Sydney's WestConnex project without completing a cost-benefit analysis, in defiance of their own election promises. They have shamelessly re-announced Labor projects such as the Gateway Upgrade North project in Brisbane. They have also claimed the planned upgrade of the Bruce and the Pacific Highway as coalition projects; in the last six months, they have only just woken up to the fact that the Bruce Highway existed, even though it ran through the electorate of one of their own National Party ministers responsible for it at the time—he never said too much about it then.

It has been a long time between drinks for investment in rail infrastructure. When the Liberals were previously in government it never got much of a look in, I can tell you that. On the other hand, federal Labor invested $3.4 billion in rail freight networks over their six years in office. This means that by 2016, the average trip from Brisbane to Melbourne will be seven hours shorter than it was before the previous Labor government took office. The average trip from the east to the west coast of Australia will be reduced by nine hours. That is what you call productivity; that is what you call efficiency. That is what you call investing in our national economy. We committed more investment into urban rail infrastructure than all of our predecessors combined, since Federation. I throw the challenge out there, beat that! That is it, just beat that! Show your colours, go out and do more than we did.

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