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

On Inland Rail, which the minister has just raised, of course there had already been $600 million in round figures expended on Inland Rail on the existing parts of the north-south corridor that will form part of the Inland Rail line. In our previous, Labor government budgets, $300 million was contributed for planning and updated work. I was pleased that in this year's budget there was the first dollar that had ever been added by a coalition government for that project. I do note that it took until the third budget was brought down by the coalition before a single dollar was put into the Inland Rail project. It is good that it be gotten on with.

I think there is no doubt that that has to be seen as a regional economic development project, not just a transport project. A city such as Parkes will be very much transformed, sitting, as it does, not just on the north-south corridor but on the east-west corridor as well. I do believe that is an important project where construction needs to be gotten on with in this term, otherwise people are going to be somewhat frustrated by the slow way in which the government proceeded in the period before the current minister was in that job.

I also want to raise the issue of cuts to Infrastructure Australia's actual budget. If you look to the forward estimates, Infrastructure Australia's funding is cut by 25 per cent next year and the following two years. I am concerned that this is happening at a time when the government says that it is going to take Infrastructure Australia seriously. That is not the way to do it. Funding is not just an indication, but I am somewhat concerned that the minister's press release last Monday spoke about 'new' projects on the Infrastructure Australia list when, frankly, they were all old. That is not a criticism of the minister, but there is some concern that Infrastructure Australia think that the M80 is somehow a new project. That is quite bizarre, frankly. There is also the ARTC work on the east-west corridor across South Australia—the funding of which had already been announced or re-announced by the government. It was actually funded as part of the former government's funding package.

It is of some concern that the process seems to have been reversed, in that Infrastructure Australia now seem to make announcements of things that have already been funded or announced by either this government or, in some cases, the previous government based upon assessments that had already been made. For example, Infrastructure Australia also had recommended Cross River Rail as the No. 1 project in its 2012 priority list, when in 2016 Brisbane's public transport network—which will not only impact Brisbane but also the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast—reaches complete capacity with just the one crossing at Maryvale Bridge within five years, best case scenario, and the government's position is that it is still waiting on processes. This is a project that was signed off by the Commonwealth and the Queensland government's in 2013 following the Infrastructure Australia recommendations. The longer the delay, the less economic growth and productivity growth from projects like that. The government should be getting on with it.

I would also ask the minister: how is the Commonwealth having an impact on the oversight of the planning work on the WestConnex project? I accept that some of the changes will make it better, but how is the Commonwealth keeping an oversight given the changes that keep occurring, many of which are creating considerable— (Time expired)

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