Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take that interjection. We are talking about nation building; it is all part of the canvas. Labor had the proposals assessed by an independent body—that is, Infrastructure Australia. When Infrastructure Australia classified stage 1 of the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel as 'ready to proceed', the highest level of priority for infrastructure spending in 2012, Labor announced it would invest $3 billion into this vital project. Labor put the steps in place to build our nation's future by building an effective metropolitan rail network for one of our largest cities.

However, the current Abbott government has no commitment to urban rail infrastructure. The bill before this House deals with the 1961 loan from the Menzies government to the Brand government for the construction of a railway. A federal Liberal government loaning money to a Liberal government to invest in rail! Unfortunately, the current Abbott government does not share this philosophy. For my sins as a representative in this House, I took the time to read the Prime Minister's book Battlelines during the last break. I did it so my constituents do not need to. I do not recommend it, unless it is bedtime reading for constituents with sleep problems. In this book the Prime Minister writes adoringly, even autoerotically:

The humblest person is king in his own car …

In contrast, the PM's view of public transport is that it is:

… generally slow, expensive, not especially reliable ... a hideous drain on the public purse.

He says this because:

There just aren't enough people wanting to go from a particular place to a particular destination at a particular time to justify any vehicle larger than a car, and cars need roads.

Well I would like to invite the Prime Minister to jump with me onto the Sunbury line from Melbourne's west to the CBD during peak hour on any day of the week to see whether there are enough people wanting to got to a particular destination in the Melbourne CBD at a particular time—to get to work—to justify a train. Or he could come with me on the Williamstown line or the Werribee line or any of the rail lines in Melbourne.

The Prime Minister further said that 'the Commonwealth has no history of funding urban rail' and that it should 'stick to its knitting'. And according to the Prime Minister:

And the commonwealth's knitting when it comes to funding infrastructure is roads.

The Prime Minister seems to be oblivious to the $3.3 billion invested by the previous Labor government—a Commonwealth government—in my electorate in the Regional Rail Link project. This is a project that will substantially increase capacity for commuters from Melbourne's west to the CBD for the benefit of all residents in Melbourne's west through to Geelong. In fact, Tony Abbott refuses to invest in our nation's urban rail infrastructure in any respect whatsoever.

In the recent budget, the coalition axed more than $4 billion worth of investments in better urban rail services, including: Brisbane's Cross River Rail project, Perth's airport rail line and rail link, Adelaide's Tonsley Park public transport project and a Hobart study into light rail. Most significantly, as I mentioned earlier, it took the $3 billion that Labor had allocated for the Melbourne Metro rail project. Instead the Prime Minister committed this money towards highways. Highways that will provide only a short-term fix to our transport capacity problems. Highways that will now be more expensive to drive on, thanks to an increase in fuel excise introduced in the recent budget. Highways such as East West Link in Melbourne, where no business case has been seen and even on the Victorian government's unpublished project assessment a standard economic analysis suggests the project would return at best just 80c for every dollar invested. Tony Abbott's message to commuters in Melbourne's west is clear: 'You'll be waiting a long time yet'. Waiting for a government with real nation-building vision. Waiting for a Labor government.

I return at this point to the comments of Mark Twain when he considered the rail gauge project:

Think of the paralysis of intellect that gave that idea birth.

Think of the paralysis of intellect now that results in a leader of our nation ruling out all forms of investment in urban public rail. Tony Abbott argues he is investing in roads so that the states will invest in rail. But the states do not have the money to invest in projects of the scale of the Melbourne Metro rail project. This is why we see the Napthine government in Victoria now promising a second-rate Melbourne metro rail link that does not even run through the CBD and will do nothing to fix Melbourne's congestion problems—certainly not in Melbourne's west. Even Robert Doyle, the Liberal Lord Mayor of Melbourne and a former leader of the Liberal state opposition, was scathing of the second-rate Melbourne Metro plan released by Premier Napthine. He told ABC Radio:

The Berlin Wall was a 30-year mistake but not building Metro One in the original way it was designed would be a 100-year catastrophe for our city.

And with the severe cuts in federal funding to health and education thanks to this year's federal budget, the states will not have spare money to throw around.

In 1961 the rail agreement between the state Liberal WA government and the federal Liberal government had a vision for Australia's future. It saw rail as a nation-building activity as the easy movement of people and goods would help our nation grow.    In contrast, the Abbott government's vision for Australia's transport future is a bleak one paved with tar. It is a future where if you are reliant on public transport to get around, your days will get a little bit harder every day. It is a future where, even if you do drive, you are destined to spend hours waiting in gridlock. It is a vision for a cruel, cold and unequal Australia and it will take Australia in the wrong direction.

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