Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

With due respect to the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, he full well knows that it is not included in the legislation—that it is determined upon the whim of the government of the day. We know that the last time the coalition came to office they cut $2 billion from the road funding budget in their first budget and they never recovered in terms of road funding.

Mr Briggs interjecting—

The errand boy opposite indicates that he was very young at the time, and I accept that he is not personally responsible.

An opposition member interjecting—

But I will point out that the bloke who issues him orders and instructions each day was here. He has been here almost since Federation. He was the transport minister who described the Cooroy to Curra section of the Bruce Highway as the worst section of road in Australia. It was in his seat and he was the transport minister but it took a Labor government to promise, fund, build and open the new section from Cooroy to Curra. That is typical of what we did.

Those opposite simply seek to politicise decision making. We saw this morning on the front page of the newspaper that they are establishing a subcommittee of cabinet. Why that is an announcement is another thing. We had subcommittees of cabinet as well, but we did not do press releases, as cabinet is supposed to be sensitive and not for publicity. But when you have nothing to say about infrastructure except for re-announcements, you say you are establishing a committee.

The rhetoric of that article indicated that this was about the politicians, not the bureaucracy, making decisions, which is how this fits with the amendment that is before the chamber. That is what the article said: they are taking charge; they are going to make decisions. You can imagine the sorts of decisions that will be made by those opposite. Tonsley Park is a public transport project in the assistant minister's own city, yet when he talked about it on radio he thought it was a freight project. It is about three kilometres out of his seat. Such an anathema is the very concept of public transport to those opposite.

It comes down to the book Battlelines. Tony Abbott clearly indicates his view that public transport somehow diminishes the rights of the individual and the power that an individual feels in a car. If cities are going to function productively, you need to have effective public transport. That is why the amendment before the chamber seeks to have Infrastructure Australia play its proper role. It is not picked up in this bill—Infrastructure Australia has no role. The other bill before the Senate, which they say covers it off, clearly does not cover it off. Proposed section 5A(2) gives complete power to the minister. It says:

However, Infrastructure Australia must not evaluate a proposal under subsection (1)—

that is, nationally significant infrastructure—

if the proposal is in a class of proposals determined by the Minister.

Complete power to the minister for what Infrastructure Australia does. So you are going to establish a board rather than the Infrastructure Australia council—same thing, different word—and you are going to instruct them. I never, ever instructed Sir Rod Eddington, as Chair of Infrastructure Australia, about what he could, or could not, look at. Infrastructure Australia came up with a range of recommendations, some of which I agreed with and some of which I did not. But if you are going to have an independent adviser then you should actually respect it. This legislation, just like the IA bill does not do that.

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