Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to join the debate on the Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill 2014 and to follow my good friend the member for Oxley. I fear he may need some counselling; he seems to be in denial. He seems to be despairing over the fact that the Australian people felt so strongly about the Labor government—the six years of allegedly good Labor government—that they kicked them out of office. If the Labor Party was quite as good as the member for Oxley likes to pretend they were, then the Australian people would not have needed to boot them out of office at the last election. One reason why the Australian people removed the Labor Party was that they failed to manage the Australian economy. There are a vast number of other reasons, but they failed to manage the Australian economy and the Australian budget. Over Labor's years in government we saw accumulated deficits in the order of $123 billion, with deficit budget after deficit budget. We were on track for $660 billion worth of debt. It might come as a newsflash to the member for Oxley, but the Australian people care about issues relating to value for money and making sure that the Australian taxpayer's money is spent in an appropriate way.

If you listened to the member for Oxley, you would believe the fairytale that the only governments that are any good for Australia in terms of building infrastructure are Labor Party governments. It is simply not the case. The coalition has a strong and proud record of supporting infrastructure development in our nation. As a regional member of parliament, like many others in this place, I have a strong interest in land transport infrastructure. I am sure that most regional MPs, as they travel through their electorates, receive feedback from their constituents on a daily basis that the state of the road and rail networks is one of the biggest issues, if not the biggest issue, in our communities. In our cities, the roads are obviously in better condition but they are heavily congested. So it is important that the federal government works in partnership with both state and local governments on improving the road network for very good reasons, such as economic productivity and social connectedness.

I welcome today's debate, because the coalition are committed to building the infrastructure of the 21st century which our nation needs to help meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. We are certainly committed to making sure that regional Australia gets a fair share of the road and rail infrastructure budget, which is being made available under the current government. Australia's future growth will be significantly influenced by our capacity to deliver more appropriate, efficient and effective infrastructure. Regional Australia in particular needs good transport links. It is critical to the social life of our communities, but also for the economic prosperity of our region. In particular, the roads in many communities are the arteries of community life. Without good road networks, our communities simply struggle to connect with markets and to connect with their neighbours. It is critical that the federal government plays a role in supporting both local and state government in that regard.

I am pleased to see that the new government is working hard with both the state and territory governments to deliver nationally significant infrastructure projects that will help to grow Australia's productivity and improve our living standards. The new government is also working in partnership with the private sector to maximise some private capital investment in infrastructure, to leverage off the public funding that is available for important infrastructure projects throughout our nation.

Importantly, this bill continues the successful Roads to Recovery program, which was established under the Howard government in 2005. The member for Oxley talked about the habit of incoming governments to rebrand or change programs. It is interesting to note that the Roads to Recovery program, which started in 2005, has survived through changes of government, firstly to the Labor Party and now back to the coalition. It is a good program. It is a program that local governments throughout Australia greatly appreciate, because it gives local government the flexibility to decide and to set the priorities that they want to set within their own communities. It trusts local communities, using the money provided by the federal government, to make the decisions to address local concerns. As the former shadow parliamentary secretary for roads and regional transport, I had the opportunity last year to travel extensively throughout regional Australia. I visited many councils, including the council in the member for Bendigo's electorate, where councillors, the mayor and the executives are very keen for Roads to Recovery to continue into the future.

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