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

That is right. I am doing that, because this is a government that is handing over taxpayers' money. It needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency, rather than simply being deferred by the government.

There was no notice given to my office of when this would be brought on—no notice, no discussion. Pick up the phone as a minister and say, 'We will debate this at a particular time.' The motion that is before the chair defers it to the never-never at the whim of a government that has shown that it is incompetent and incapable of handling the legislative processes of this House or the other house. That is why it should be brought on now. If the government wanted to have a discussion about when it would be brought on, it should have done that. It has chosen not to, which is why we are objecting to the motion that is before the House.

We know that for the East West Link project you have made an advance payment. You have a government in Victoria that is desperate to sign a contract for a project that has not had a proper cost-benefit analysis. Indeed, during Senate estimates at the time when this legislation was first dealt with, on 26 May, Infrastructure Australia was asked:

So Infrastructure Australia has not seen the full business case?

The answer:

No.

Then there is the question:

But it does not recover costs?

IA, Infrastructure Australia, says:

Not for the core benefit-cost ratio.

Question:

It does not recover costs?

Answer:

As presented, yes.

So what we are talking about is government funds being used for projects that do not even get a dollar back for every dollar invested. They are bad investments for the taxpayer.

That is why this motion should not be supported. That is why we should deal with this legislation now. It has been around for a long time. Let's have some certainty. Let's pass the legislation with the amendments that have been supported in the Senate.

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