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

I can indeed, and I note that it is fair game in this chamber from this point on. The fact is that the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that public investment in infrastructure is down by 20 per cent when you compare the September 2015 quarter with the September 2013 quarter.

Of the government's three big-ticket items when it comes to roads, the East West Link, as we know from the audits that have taken place and from the business case that was prepared for that project, would have produced 45c of benefit for every dollar of taxpayers' money. It is like the government going to an individual taxpayer and saying, 'You give me $100 and I'll give you $45 back next time I see you'—an extraordinary proposition. Of course, we know that $1½ billion was pre-paid in order to prop up the Victorian state government budget but with a consequential negative impact on the Commonwealth budget—an extraordinary proposition. The Perth Freight Link has been knocked over in the courts because it was a project that was done on the run, where the WA minister responsible indicated that there was no business case and no planning had been done that was worthy of any public scrutiny, and where the courts have determined that the approvals were made incorrectly because the route goes through a wetland in Perth and simply is not ready to be approved in an appropriate way. WestConnex, in Sydney, is a project that began with a $10 billion price tag and is now priced at $16.8 billion. Again, advance payments have been made with respect to that project. Some $2.75 billion has been forwarded to New South Wales. It is quite an extraordinary proposition.

We have had a range of ministers responsible whom I have seen off as the shadow minister. One of the new ministers has been given the title of minister for major projects. He should be called the minister for Labor projects because NorthConnex, the Pacific Highway, the Bruce Highway, the Gateway Upgrade North, NorthLink WA, the Perth Airport gateway, the North-South Road Corridor, the Midland Highway in Tasmania and the Inland Rail project are all projects that were funded and begun under the former Labor government.

What we have seen from the government from time to time is that, extraordinarily, it has given projects new names. The Swan Valley Bypass, for example, has become NorthLink WA. The F3 to M2 project in New South Wales has become NorthConnex. They are the same projects. Giving them a new name does not make them new projects, but the government has pretended that they are. Among the projects, just in New South Wales, that have been re-announced by the government as part of its magical infrastructure re-announcement tour, Pacific Highway projects were re-announced on 8 January, 21 March, 17 September and 22 December 2014, and 26 March, 1 April and 28 April 2015. The F3 to M2 was re-announced as NorthConnex on 15 March 2014. The Hunter Expressway was re-announced at its opening—the government pretending that it had anything to do with it at all—on 21 March 2014. The Great Western Highway was re-announced on 10 July 2014. The northern Sydney freight upgrade was re-announced on 28 November 2013. The Moorebank Intermodal was re-announced on 13 December 2013. The Port Botany upgrade program was re-announced on 13 May 2014. The Port Botany rail line was re-announced on 7 March 2014. These projects were commenced and under construction. Indeed, in the minister's state of Victoria, the Regional Rail Link was actually opposed as part of the economic stimulus plan by those opposite, and yet the government has pretended that it was somehow responsible.

We know that what occurred when the government came to office was that Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister, and the government cancelled funding for every single public transport project that was not already under construction, including the Melbourne Metro, Brisbane's Cross River Rail line and the Tonsley Park upgrade in South Australia. The Gawler line electrification was stopped halfway through. These are all cuts that were made. Cuts were also made, of course, to road projects—projects like the M80 in Victoria and the Midland Highway in Tasmania, which was cut by $100 million.

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