Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

One of the things that state ministers complain to us about is the fact that predecessors in state governments have sold off corridors over the decades, meaning that they have to go underground. The WestConnex in Sydney is a great example. When you go underground because state governments in the past have sold off corridors, you have to spend nearly seven times more on average. They complain bitterly about it because it costs them more, and we have to spend more money to fix the problem in the future. Selling off corridors for the quick fix of a budget in the short term shows a lack of foresight.

Usually we talk about historic events, like the MATS plan in South Australia where a former South Australian government in the seventies sold off these corridors, but we have history in front of us here. We have the planning minister who refused to have decent planning in Western Australia, in Perth, and sold off the corridor. This is a complete own goal. The member for Grayndler, if he were here, would be shaking his head at this: a Labor Party that now wants to oppose billions of dollars worth of investment. It would include the involvement of the private sector in Western Australia for the first time and excellent economic reform welcomed by none other than the TWU, and the member for Perth wants to abolish it, wants to abandon it, wants to walk away from it, wants to stop it. With Greens senator Scott Ludlam, her soul mate in the Senate, she wants to stand in the way of it. She will use any means possible because it is all about her record as planning minister. That is the reality.

The MPI also canvasses jobs, investment and infrastructure. No federal government in history has spent more time, more effort, more focus and more money on infrastructure than this government, than the infrastructure Prime Minister. Along with the Treasurer, the Minister for Finance, the Deputy Prime Minister and me, he is completely and utterly focused on making sure that we are delivering infrastructure right across the country. There are 10,000 jobs with the WestConnex project, and the second stage, brought forward by 18 months, is underway now because of this government and the concessional loan that we put in place for the first time in history. There are 8½ thousand jobs with the NorthConnex project. There is the Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan. And government is finally making a decision on a second Sydney airport, which is such a vital piece of infrastructure. There will be 4,000 jobs just for the infrastructure to support the development of the Western Sydney airport. There will be the 1,000 jobs created with Gateway WA. The nearly 1,000 jobs that will be created with the North-South Corridor in South Australia will benefit the member for Kingston's seat. This is the project that she is utterly opposed to. At the last federal election the member for Kingston opposed the Darlington interchange project, and we will remind her constituents of that at the next election and when that project gets underway.

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