Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I support the Infrastructure Australia Amendment (Cost Benefit Analysis and Other Measures) Bill 2014. The amendments in the bill seek to restore the independence and transparency of Infrastructure Australia. This is not the first time I have had the opportunity to speak on this bill in this parliament. On several occasions people on this side of the House have tried to get the government to restore the independence and transparency of Infrastructure Australia. Infrastructure Australia was created in 2008 to ensure that projects were based upon need, based upon the country's priorities, and not based upon political opportunism. There is no greater example of that than in Victoria, where the funding for a massive project—the East West Link—has been put ahead of everything else. Funding of about $8 billion from state Liberal and National and federal Liberal and National governments is going towards a tunnel that will not solve Melbourne's transport problems. That is funding that could have gone towards our regional road and rail infrastructure.

The bill before the House demonstrates the stunning failure of this government to ensure proper process with project selection, and it also ensures there is a cost-benefit analysis for any project that the Commonwealth funds. Proper process requires Infrastructure Australia to rank projects in order of need and priority. It links the need for a cost-benefit analysis to Commonwealth funding—the project must pass the cost-benefit test before it receives funding. This government has allocated funding first when it comes to the East West Link and discussion about the cost-benefit analysis has taken place second.

Labor will move an amendment to relate analysis to a $100 million capital value of a project rather than a level of Commonwealth funding. This is important because we need to consider the project as a whole. It is important that within the proper process we assess first and fund later. That is how we ensure that we are getting best value for the taxpayer's dollar and that we are addressing projects in order of need and critical importance.

Linking the cost-benefit analysis to the commitment of Commonwealth funding means that public transport projects will also be prioritised. As we have heard from this government on several occasions, they do not believe it is their responsibility to fund the public transport networks. This is just such a cynical view of how our country functions. Our country needs to ensure that we have funding and investment in both public transport and road usage. The best outcome for our country is a combination of good roads and good rail to ensure that people can get safely to where they want to go and also to ensure that our product and services can get from A to B in the safest and fastest way possible.

As I have mentioned, the greatest example of why these amendments are so necessary is the East West Link in Melbourne. We know that the Liberals, whether they be state or federal, are obsessed with Melbourne based transport road projects, leaving behind the importance of suspending funding on our regional roads and regional rail. At a state level, the Liberal-National government are spending $8 billion, which includes some advanced federal funding allocated to them for the East West tunnel, leaving precious little funding available for vital regional rail projects. Yes, they have put a couple of million dollars into this project or a couple of million dollars into that project, but it goes nowhere near the $8 billion investment that is going into the East West tunnel.

Let us just remind people about this tunnel. There are very few people in Melbourne who actually travel from east to west in the inner city. There is very little product on that side of Melbourne that needs to go from east to west. The biggest solution to the traffic problem in East Melbourne is a rail link to get the people living in the east into the city. The reason why it is a tunnel that goes nowhere is that people end up in exactly the same traffic queue once they turn off to try to get into the city. The East West Link tunnel is a classic example of the government not wanting to do a cost-benefit analysis. They did not want to see the business case for the tunnel; it was about appeasing voters in the east.

This project demonstrates why it is so important that Infrastructure Australia maintains its independence and transparency and that it continues to play the role of prioritising infrastructure projects in Australia. Instead of allocating funds to our regional highways, arterial roads, local roads and regional roads, they are being allocated to what has been described by many as the 'dud tunnel'. This tunnel, as we know, is also going to displace a number of people who are currently living in the area. It has been a rushed project that has caused great concern within the community. If there had been a process whereby stakeholders had been able to engage before the maps of the tunnel had been released, we could have avoided the conflict that is going on right now in Melbourne around this project.

Wasting money is what nobody wants. It is the federal government who needs to take responsibility for strong cost-benefit analyses of projects on behalf of the Australian people. The Prime Minister does not believe that it is the role of the government to do this. Last September in the Age he said that he did not see the need for the East West Link business case. The journalist went on to report in the Age that the government will hand over $1.5 billion in funding for the tunnel, without seeing the full business case. This is from a government that claims to be economic marvels and rationalists! They hand over $1.5 billion in funding for a tunnel that has not had a cost-benefit analysis done on it and that will not solve the problems of Melbourne. They hand over funding without seeing the business case. Now the government is making an advanced payment to the state of Victoria to help fast-track the project. For those who do not know, there is a state election in Victoria. So this is another case of pork-barrelling and another reason why we need to see an independent, transparent Infrastructure Australia that can put forward the priority list for our country.

Good roads and rail are critical to regional communities, and this funding of the East West Link could have gone to our region. Take Mildura, where we have a freight rail. It has become so degraded that freight is leaving Mildura at less than 15 kilometres per hour. The whole of regional Victoria whether in the east, north, north-west, north-east or west, there is product we are trying to get to port. That is why it is so critical to invest in the roads and rail infrastructure in our region. This $8 billion could have actually helped get that product to port safely. When we talk about roads in our region, the Calder Alternate Highway going north of Bendigo is a hazard. There have been number of accidents on that road already this year. If the government were serious about getting value for money, if the government were serious about supporting and growing our agricultural industry, they would invest in the roads and infrastructure that would help get our product to port. That is not an east-west link tunnel.

The only major infrastructure project that will benefit Central Victoria is the Regional Rail Link, and that was funded by the former federal-state Labor governments. To be honest, the state Liberal-National government had to be dragged to this project kicking and screaming. It is also a good example of why we need Infrastructure Australia. It is an example of a project that did have a strong business case, that did have a strong cost-benefit analysis and that was a priority for the region. The former federal Labor government partnered with the former state Labor government and invested $4.4 billion in building the Regional Rail Link—the largest Commonwealth investment in urban public transport in Australia's history. Why I say 'urban' is that it provided a direct line. So once the freight and passenger rail got to the outer suburbs of Melbourne, it had a direct link into the city and did not get stuck behind the metro traffic.

It is the biggest rail project in over 80 years, and it is the first rail project in Victoria in 80 years. It took Labor governments at state and federal level to realise that. It was through the prioritisation of a body like Infrastructure Australia that it was made to happen. When completed, the Regional Rail Link will provide a capacity for an extra 23 Metro peak services each morning and evening thus allowing more Victorians to have sustainable transport. So this one regional rail link does not just help regional travellers; it does not just help regional product to get to port; it also helps Metro because it frees up the Metro lines to allow Metro travel.

Congestion is the handbrake on the economy, and currently it is costing the Australian economy $13 billion. It is something that every speaker recognises. The question is: how do we tackle that? How do we ensure that we have the infrastructure priority list to make sure that as a country we are tackling this issue? These decisions cannot be done by pork-barrelling or election spins or election cycles. These decisions must be prioritised by an independent Infrastructure Australia where we have a cost benefit analysis and a business case. It is how you get projects like the Regional Rail Link off the ground as opposed to the east-west tunnel that we are currently facing in Victoria. The Commonwealth government should be investing in an integrated transport system that combines both road and rail. The federal government does have a role to play in investing in rail, and to suggest that we do not is narrow-sighted. If we want to be able to get more people onto rail to free up our roads for freight, then we need to have federal government investment in rail.

It is also why we need the independent and transparent Infrastructure Australia. Among the other areas that need to be considered when it comes to these massive projects is, for example, procurement. The Regional Rail Link created a lot of jobs in Victoria. The construction space created 4,000 jobs and, because that tender process was done—started by the former Labor government and at a federal and state level—apprenticeships were created. Local jobs were created. There was procurement where small businesses and local businesses were able to tender for that work.

But what we are seeing with the Regional Rail Link, and through some of the complaints that I have heard, is that if the tender process goes ahead great big consortia from around the world will tender for that project and local businesses are concerned that they will miss out on that work. Last week I visited Tylden Equipment in Kyneton. They build cement plants, and for a project like the East-West Link they would build the cement plant that makes the cement for the tunnel. They are worried that because they are further down the supply chain and because the project could go to a major international consortium that could bring over the cement plant and put it together here at the site, Tylden would lose that opportunity to build the cement plant for the project. That particular place employs 20 employees and a contract to build the cement plant for the East-West Link would secure work for that facility for at least six months. So when we talk about major projects, we need to consider procurement and ensuring that through the supply chain contracts are going to local providers if they are able to provide those services.

This bill is about ensuring that we restore independence and transparency to Infrastructure Australia. It is about ensuring that Australia gets the projects and the transport routes it needs in the order it needs them. It takes away the pork-barrelling that we have seen in the past. It ensures that regardless of who is in those seats or regardless of the political party we are building the infrastructure that we need for the future. As I have said, at the moment regional Victoria is being dudded by this government and is not getting its fair share of funding from this government when it comes to building the major regional road and rail infrastructure it requires.

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