Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

A gridlocked nation is an unhappy one, as evidenced by more than 5,000 infrastructure related letters, emails and calls received in my electorate office. So I am delighted that the federal budget makes a significant contribution to getting our nation moving, with an additional transport infrastructure investment of $11.6 billion rising to $50 billion by the end of the decade. This Commonwealth investment will catalyse further state and private sector investments, leading to over $125 billion of infrastructure commitments by the end of the decade.

Targeted spending on productivity-enhancing infrastructure will have an extraordinary impact on our nation: contributing to economic growth, creating tens of thousands of jobs, improving efficiency and raising living standards by reducing congestion. The government is prioritising road infrastructure, thereby reducing bottlenecks that are a toll on both business and local communities. Federal spending on road infrastructure means that state governments can inject more funding into other transport infrastructure, namely rail.

A healthy transport system supports a healthy economy. Looking down the track, Treasury estimates that the government's growth package is expected to increase the size of the economy by one per cent. Even the construction phase can be a boost for local economies. For example, the East West Link in Melbourne and the WestConnex project in Sydney will together create 16,000 new jobs. Making the difficult decisions to get spending under control and debt under control allows our nation to focus on paying for infrastructure, not interest.

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