Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Durack knows that the budget, which the Treasurer delivered last night, provides a record amount of infrastructure spending in this country and Western Australia does not miss out. In fact, there will be $4.7 billion of infrastructure investment in Western Australia over the next few years. It will be investment in productivity lifting and in enhancing infrastructure, which will mean more jobs and greater prosperity for our country. This investment is $16.5 billion more than the Labor Party promised during their election campaign on infrastructure—$16.5 billion more for funding projects such as the Great Northern Highway, the North West Coastal Highway in the member's electorate of Durack, the Swan Valley bypass and the Gateway WA project. But importantly we will be funding a new project in this budget, the Perth Freight Link project—a $1.6 billion project. For this new project, $925 million is being funded by the Australian government, a 20 per cent contribution is coming from the Western Australian government and the remaining funds are made up from the private sector investment—for the first time in Western Australia.

This project will be a huge benefit for the member from Durack because all the goods from her part of the world, which are our great export lifeline, will be able to be moved more quickly through Perth, getting trucks off the major highways. This will also mean commuters can drive on the roads without competing with big trucks. This is a huge reform, thanks to the innovation of the infrastructure Prime Minister and his government, and the Western Australian government. This is not only a $50 billion program; it is a program with innovation at its heart.

The Labor Party did not support and was utterly opposed to the WestConnex—Stage 2 project. It was also utterly opposed to and did not have any idea about the East West Link project in Melbourne and the North-South Corridor in Adelaide—we are delivering both projects. The Labor Party did not have it within its wit to do so. This is the infrastructure Prime Minister driving productivity growth in our country, driven through a Treasurer who has put in place in the budget the money required to ensure that these projects get done—not just announced on whiteboards but actually done and delivered. New projects worth $50 billion is a fantastic development for Australia—that is, more jobs, more growth and a stronger Australia.

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