Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

ignoring the south side. Only federal projects funded by Labor on the south side have been opened. Unfortunately, Campbell Newman, when he was in office—even though his transport minister was an MP in my electorate—neglected the south side. As I said, we saw the Elizabeth Street grade separation, which got rid of the delay at Acacia Ridge of 13 minutes, and the Kessels-Mains intersection at $280 million. But when the state LNP government were in office, under Campbell Newman, we had stooges. We had the member for Yeerongpilly—who I think joined the Palmer United Party and then became an independent—the member for Sunnybank and the member for Stretton who were complete stooges when it came to implementing something for the south side. They were silent on this neglect.

When the ALP came to office back in 2007, unfortunately when it came to investing in infrastructure, according to the OECD, we were 20th in terms of spending as a proportion of GDP. When we left office in 2013, we were first when it came to investing in infrastructure. We set up an independent body, Infrastructure Australia, and when they recommended at arms-length 15 projects, how many of those projects did we fund? Fifteen of those projects, including Brisbane's Cross River rail project.

We know that traffic congestion costs us money. At the moment we are estimating it will cost us about $13 billion this year. By 2031 that will be out to $50 billion. What do we do? We need to invest in infrastructure—things like the Cross River Rail project which, as everyone on the south side knows, is a pinch point for all traffic right through from the New South Wales border to the city of Brisbane because of that one crossing, being the Grey Street rail bridge. It is a growth corridor all the way through to the Gold Coast. We have got Liberal National Party representatives. Unfortunately, under Prime Minister Abbott, before he got knifed in the back by Malcolm Turnbull, right through to the Gold Coast they have not funded the Cross River Rail project. When they do—by necessity they will fund the Cross River Rail project—every one of those extra trains that goes on the train line will go through the boom gates at Coopers Plains. So we had the member for Moreton, Gary Hardgrave, saying back in 1996 that we need to fund the upgrade at the Coopers Plains rail crossing. Now we need to do whatever we can to secure funding.

  Unfortunately, the Labor government in Queensland went to an election on keeping a promise, basically. They did not do the backflips like those opposite have done. They said, 'We will not sell these assets.' That therefore excludes them from the asset recycling money. That therefore means that Queensland is not able to access the money that we need to invest in important public infrastructure such as the Coopers Plains rail crossing. And it is not good enough. (Time expired)

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