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

He is just wrong. It is either a lie deliberately or it is misleading. The Majura Parkway, for example, he can have a look at on the way to Canberra Airport. It was approved by Infrastructure Australia with a BCR above 3, funded—no politics in it at all—$144 million from each level of government, benefiting ACT seats that are not partisan. The Goodwood to Torrens project in Adelaide, the Hunter Expressway in the Hunter—all three projects are ones which boost national productivity approved by Infrastructure Australia and then funded by the government; all 15 out of 15 projects, including projects like the managed motorway system that has been cut—a managed motorway system using smart infrastructure that has a higher benefit cost ratio than all projects that have been considered by Infrastructure Australia.

There has been no answer about new projects on the Pacific Highway in the budget; no answer about the Bruce Highway; no answer about the cuts to the Gateway; and no answer about the fact that WestConnex does not go to the city in terms of stage 1—it goes from Parramatta to Haberfield—and stage 2 goes from Beverly Hills to St Peters rather than to the port.

There has been no answer, whatsoever, to those questions.

I want to ask the minister another question, given that silence is golden with regard to the non-answers that have been given. My question to the minister is about aviation. I am talking about aviation safety, so he might want to listen! I seek an assurance from the minister that, in terms of the departmental cuts that have been indicated in the government's budget, no cuts will be made to CASA or the aviation safety agencies, including the ATSB. The issue of aviation safety has been, and should continue to be, above politics. I seek the minister's assurance that in terms of those cuts, there will be a quarantining of aviation safety regulators and agencies from those cuts.

See this speech in context