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

This article has been published. It includes the East West project in Melbourne. We make this point on the East West project in Melbourne: we need a cost-benefit analysis. That is what the government's policy is. It is still on their website that for projects above $100 million there will be a cost-benefit analysis and it will be published. That is the government's policy, yet in this article the junior minister is saying that that is red tape. Well, it is this government's policy, and $1.5 billion as an advance payment has been made this month for a project, including stage 2, $1 billion advance payment for a project that has had no cost-benefit analysis for stage 2. They do not even know where the tunnel is going to come up. There has been no documentation or proper assessment and it will not begin this financial year when the billion dollars is being paid, not even next financial year even but the financial year after that. So much for their budget emergency—$1.5 billion sitting in bank accounts of the Victorian government to make their budget look better. It makes a farce of the rhetoric.

This bill will be carried as amended with the support of the entire parliament. That is a good thing. The government suggested a range of minor amendments, including moving one section in terms of the cost-benefit analysis for specific projects rather than what it might be interpreted as being, for the longer term plans. Certainly the intention of the amendment was clear, that it was about specific projects. The opposition, and might I say to their credit also the Greens political party, were prepared to support an amendment going through the House as a result of the representations from the minister, taken in good faith by me. I have said to the minister, and it is a serious statement, that whenever he wants to talk about serious policy I am up for it and I am up for constructive engagement. That is the way I do business. But what I will not cop is while I am in a room having serious discussions with one minister his errand boy is out there undermining those discussions up in the gallery. That is not adult government; that is student politics. If I were Simon Benson or Paul Whittaker, I would be upset with the government for giving them this level of spin that is just nonsense. The proof that it is nonsense is a fact that the government is supporting this amended legislation through the parliament today. It will go through unanimously.

I put on the record here that if the minister wanted to have a minor amendment bill or what have you to fix up that little bit, if he thought it was important, there would be support from the opposition. But there is no doubt that as a result of the scrutiny that has taken place, particularly the Senate inquiry and the submissions from the business community, that this legislation, flawed when it originally went through, taking away the independence of Infrastructure Australia, has been substantially improved. Infrastructure Australia must be at the core of recommendations. The budget had funding for programs like the Perth freight project that simply do not have any analysis. There is no funding in the WA budget for it, there have been no proper assessments and no planning. That is not the way to do business. The way to do business is to depoliticise the infrastructure debate, and Infrastructure Australia is the key to that. I commend the legislation as amended to the House.

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