Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Our population has grown and continues to grow, and this has led to a dramatic increase in the need for housing and more livable cities. We need a long-term plan for our infrastructure needs—to build public transport and roads, schools and housing. When we do this it has to be done in a way that promotes jobs and growth and ensures sustainability and support for social cohesion. The piecemeal approach to infrastructure planning is flawed, but unfortunately it continues to prevail. This is not because planners and communities do not know what is needed, but rather that too many essential projects succumb to a lack of funding or political will. Indeed, under this government, the outlook is glum. The ABS recently found that public sector investment in infrastructure had fallen by 20.1 per cent for the June 2015 quarter compared to the last quarter when Labor was in government.

In his submission to the Senate inquiry, shortly after the election of Liberals to government and their intention to gut the scope and function of IA was revealed, the authority's then chief executive made a scathing submission in which he said:

There is an air of unreality about our infrastructure planning.

This is appalling. Building the public infrastructure our country needs should not be reminiscent of an episode of Utopia. We in this place have been entrusted by the people and the communities we represent to deliver what is in their best interest. Playing politics is not good enough, and those who do so are doing a disservice to the people they have been elected to serve.

I am proud that Labor have said that in government we would establish a $10 billion dedicated infrastructure fund that would consider, plan and fund the major infrastructure projects this country desperately needs. At the heart of this policy is an empowered Infrastructure Australia, an independent decision maker, to ensure priority is given to projects that will deliver the greatest benefit. We are not afraid to remove politicians from a process of identifying which major projects the Commonwealth should support. We will appoint an expert panel to determine the investment mandate, and, for the first time, Infrastructure Australia would have the ability and flexibility to pursue financial arrangements that leverage investment from the private sector and superannuation funds, in particular, as well as from government.

There is around $2 trillion in the pool of national superannuation savings in this country which could drive major infrastructure investment across the country. It would be a similar model to that of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which the last Labor government put in place, which from around $1.4 billion of commitments so far has created around $3½ billion of renewable, energy efficient and low-emissions projects. For every dollar of government finance, the CEFC is leveraging around $2.20 in additional investment from the private sector. More importantly, the technologies being supported will achieve around 4.2 million tonnes of carbon abatement and grow new industries.

Labor also has a longstanding commitment to progressing the planning and construction of high-speed rail along Australia's eastern seaboard from Brisbane to Melbourne via Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra. The benefits of high-speed rail are enormous and will have a transformative effect on regions like mine. Linking Newcastle and Lake Macquarie with our capital cities in a fast, convenient and reliable way will literally change the way we live and work. For many in the southern areas of Lake Macquarie, and certainly further south on the Central Coast, the commute to Sydney is already a necessity. However, it is well known that the Newcastle-to-Sydney route can take longer today than it did in the 1930s on the old Newcastle Flyer. With a high-speed rail network in place this journey could potentially be reduced to around 40 minutes.

The most recent planning document released by the department of infrastructure under the former Labor government set a blueprint for the high-speed rail corridor through Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. In it a station had been earmarked at Cameron Park in my electorate, a logical location given its proximity to the M1 motorway and the Hunter Expressway, and very accessible to the burgeoning population centres of the lower Hunter and Lake Macquarie. Of course, this is only a preliminary design, and the eventual location may be further north or south of this. Nevertheless, we know that this corridor must be quarantined and that the planning work must progress with cooperation across all jurisdictions. The recent bill to establish a high-speed rail authority is vital to this process. I note and commend the New South Wales government for their commitment to work with the Commonwealth to preserve the high-speed rail corridor.

High-speed rail will unlock the potential of regions such as mine and those of other members in this place. Without putting words in her mouth, I know the member for Indi realises the potential for her own community in linking it up to Melbourne and Sydney. When we talk about infrastructure and transport, we are talking about the future. We are looking at what we need to see our economy grow and to see our industries become more efficient and sustainable. And we are making decisions on how best to make that happen. Yet far too often the debate around these issues is hijacked by unhelpful politicking, and far too often I see this in my own region.

When Labor's infrastructure fund was announced, I was disappointed to hear the member for Paterson, my fellow Hunter region MP, take to local radio to criticise the plan because it did not extend the funding to the Glendale interchange, a strategic infrastructure project that is widely recognised as a priority project for our region. Whilst I welcome the member's keen and newfound interest in the Glendale interchange and trust this will extend to lobbying his own government for further federal funding, there are a number of reasons why these comments are unhelpful and should be called out as blatant politicking. First, construction of the Glendale interchange is for the most part the responsibility of the New South Wales government. Whilst I am an unwavering proponent for this project, it is not nationally significant in terms of the scale that Infrastructure Australia needs for projects, and the member for Paterson knows this. Furthermore, the New South Wales government has not nominated the project as a priority to Infrastructure Australia, a necessary precursor for consideration by the authority. Finally, the member for Paterson should know that the infrastructure minister and his department are currently considering an application from Lake Macquarie City Council for funding for the Glendale interchange through the National Stronger Regions Fund. This is a more appropriate source of federal funding for a project of this kind. Whilst the council's application for the first round was knocked back, I remain hopeful that it will be successful this time.

The member for Paterson failed to understand that developing a $10 billion infrastructure fund for projects of supreme national significance unlocked, freed up, traditional federal government outlays for investment in projects at the next tier down, such as the Glendale transport interchange. This is the beauty of using the private sector for projects that have a direct commercial payback—using the $10 billion fund. It frees up traditional government outlays for projects that, while they are very significant for regions, are not at that nationally significant level.

In the case of Glendale, work has been divided into two stages, with roadworks in the first phase of stage 1; the construction of the Pennant Street bridge in the second phase of stage 1; and the construction of a road and rail interchange, including a new railway station, in stage 2. Lake Macquarie City Council successfully lobbied the state and federal governments to support construction of the first stage, and a total of $37.5 million has been raised from all three levels of government to progress the first phase in roadworks. However, more investment is needed in order to see the Pennant Street bridge built, and I am informed that in addition to the council's application to the second round of the National Stronger Regions Fund an application has been made to the state government through the Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund. Whilst the council has some responsibility when it comes to getting the interchange built, ultimately it is the New South Wales government that must do the lion's share. I have already called on the New South Wales government to allocate funding from the sale of the Port of Newcastle towards this project, but so far this has not been forthcoming.

The New South Wales government sold the Port of Newcastle, or leased it for 99 years, for a record price of $1.7 billion. When they released the prospectus for this sale, they made a commitment that they would spend half that money in my region. They failed to do that. Of the $1.7 billion, they have only allocated somewhere between $400 million and $500 million for my region. Importantly, most of that money is going into the heart of Newcastle, in the CBD, to rip up a heavy rail line and replace it with a light rail line. This money could be much better spent in my region, the western suburbs of Newcastle and northern Lake Macquarie.

So I call on the New South Wales government to do the right thing, to invest the further $400 million or $500 million, that represents a fair commitment to my region, from the lease of the port. I call on the member for Paterson to work with the other MPs in that area to welcome positive announcements no matter who they are from—in this speech I welcomed the commitment from the state Liberal government—and to work with us to deliver vital infrastructure for our region. We are a small region, but we have got a loud voice. We have produced tremendous wealth for Australia. We have got a great population that is growing very rapidly. And we need infrastructure urgently. By only working as a team, by moving aside petty politics, by saying, 'We want high-speed rail; we want the Glendale transport interchange,' we can boost our region, take pressure off cities such as Sydney and make the eastern seaboard a great place to work and live.

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