Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the proposed amendments put forward by the shadow minister, the member for Grayndler, to the Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill 2014. I know he has been a passionate advocate of the development of transport and infrastructure. I am lucky to have served under two 'infrastructure' Prime Minister's, who earned their title by actually investing in infrastructure, not just claiming their support for it as part of a political process. In no small amount that was due to the efforts of the member for Grayndler.

Obviously, having an inner city seat, my electorate is very different to yours, Deputy Speaker Scott. An inner city seat is often where transport congestion is at its worst. That is why it is so important that the best possible analysis is done of the productivity benefits of the economic infrastructure that the government signs off on. I have seen that in my electorate at the Kessels and Mains roads intersection, a road that I can now drive through, which used to have traffic snarls for two, three or four changes of lights. Now, the east-west traffic can go straight through, under a grade separation. I am passionate about making sure that infrastructure in my electorate is completed and upgraded, but I know that it must go through Infrastructure Australia, the organisation that will make the best decisions about it.

The amendments put forward by the member for Grayndler make sure that, rather than having the possibility that the minister may be influenced by political decisions, the responsibility is in the hands of those who will make the evaluation based on the best cost-benefit for the nation. That is why these amendments should be supported by those opposite.

I also wish to speak about the safe rates legislation. My electorate is a hub for business and transport. It has a big trucking industry, with the busiest truck-stop in Australia in terms of fuel sold. My electorate has the interstate rail line, it has coal trains coming from the west and it has the start of the train line which takes goods all the way up to Cairns. The freeway is one of my electorate's boundaries, and the Kessels and Mains intersection is the second-busiest intersection in Queensland. That is why I am proud to have had that intersection sorted out by the member for Grayndler through his commitment to infrastructure investment. As I said, he does not just claim the title; he actually puts dollars there.

Back in 2003, under the Howard government, the percentage of GDP invested in infrastructure bottomed out at around one per cent. It is great to see that, under the fair dinkum infrastructure prime ministers, Rudd and Gillard, we were able to increase that and achieve some great outcomes—outcomes that are good for productivity. I think Prime Minister Howard was on the record as saying that he did not believe in investing in public transport in urban areas, not realising the great productivity stranglehold that that creates. I was at an event in my electorate with the then minister for transport, the member for Grayndler, where he was able to sign off on some signal changes that had been advocated 108 years before, at the time of Federation. It took Labor to actually get it together, to bang the heads together, and say, 'We need to do this in the nation's interest,' rather than just letting those individual transport ministers look after their fiefdoms.

When politics comes into play, you do not get the best possible outcomes. I have seen that in my electorate. The transport minister in Queensland, the Hon. Scott Emerson, is the only state MP with an electorate that spans both sides of the Brisbane River. I wrote to him saying: 'I note that there are two rail crossing improvements being funded by the Queensland government, but both of them are on the north side of the river,' one at Robinson Road at Geebung and one at Telegraph Road at Bracken Ridge.' I said, 'How about fixing up the Coopers Plains rail crossing?' something that the former member for Moreton promised to improve back in March 1996. Minister Emerson wrote back and said: 'Go and talk to the federal transport minister and let him sort it out. It is not our problem.' It seems like the LNP in Brisbane will only look after infrastructure on the north side of the river, so I will be talking to the transport minister about that later.

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