Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I might respond to a few of those questions and then we can have some more. The shadow minister made a number of comments and asked a number of questions. He suggested that the previous Infrastructure Australia coordinator had said that by investing in roads we were reducing the assets and opportunities that would be available on rail. Frankly, if he said that, he is wrong, because the states have since the election of the current government either confirmed or reconfirmed $25 billion worth of new major public transport projects. I mentioned some of them earlier.

Victoria is going ahead with the Melbourne Metro. Queensland is going ahead with its cross-river bus and train tunnel. New South Wales has the North West Rail Link, and Western Australia the Forrestfield-Airport Link. It is quite clear that the states have taken the opportunity, because the Commonwealth is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in road funding, to be able to bring forward some of the public transport proposals that they want to have in their cities.

Frankly, the states and local government are best equipped to manage and deliver public transport projects. The Commonwealth is able to assist with the National Highway and national freight tasks—that is where we have a particular responsibility and therefore we are able to ensure that many of these projects come to fruition.

Members opposite, because of their hate campaign against roads, forget that half the public transport in the country is by bus on real roads. In reality, road investment therefore also improves the traffic and the public transport flow in our capital cities.

The shadow minister also commented on the Bruce Highway program. It was very clear that the government's $8.7 billion commitment to the Bruce Highway, of which $6.7 billion comes from the Commonwealth, was a 10-year program. That was very clear in our election announcement. That was very clear in all the public statements. If you choose to go and look at our policy documents, it is quite clear it is a 10-year program. It includes 27 extra projects that Labor had never committed to.

Of course Labor's commitment to the Bruce Highway was always conditional on the state paying 50 per cent of the costs. They knew that the state did not have 50 per cent of the cost, so their promises were empty—a bit like the Pacific Highway promises that they made; they were all conditional on 50 per cent of the cost being met by the New South Wales government. When there was a Labor state government in New South Wales, they weren't asking for 50-50. It is only when there was a change of government that the federal Labor government, the minister himself, had a change of policy and decided that in future it would be fifty-fifty on the Pacific Highway.

Under Labor, the Pacific Highway would not have been finished for decades, because they were expecting from the states funding that could never supply. We have restored the traditional 80-20 funding mix on the National Highway, and that means that the Pacific Highway projects can power ahead and deliver significant results to the people of New South Wales.

In relation to the freight link project in Western Australia where questions were asked: yes, Infrastructure Australia will report on that project, as it will on all projects over $100 million in value, and the report will be public. As long as we can get the legislation through the parliament that delivers those sorts of things then there will be a public report by Infrastructure Australia on all of the projects over $100 million.

I would prefer that Infrastructure Australia did its work and made assessments on projects before governments made announcements, and that is why we are so keen on the 15-year advanced plan. I hope that in the future Infrastructure Australia will be able to get ahead of government announcements rather than having to catch up.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

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