Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take the interjection, through you, Madam Chair: not a dollar has been spent in the southwest of Brisbane, and that brings me to the issue of infrastructure. For 13 long years under the Howard government, those opposite sat there—year in, year out—and refused to spend a dollar on the Ipswich Motorway. And they have the gall to come in here and lecture anyone else about infrastructure funding. It took a Labor federal government and a Labor state government to deliver billions of dollars worth of infrastructure upgrade.

We have also seen now, finally, the missing piece of the puzzle: the Darra to Rocklea upgrade. Money was set aside back under the federal Labor government, and what happened? The Queensland LNP state government under Campbell Newman ripped it up and refused to fund that project, time and time again, just like Cross River Rail in Brisbane.

But it gets worse. In the case of Cross River Rail, the LNP state government were prepared to fund it, and I am advised that it actually had gone through the cabinet process after the former government led by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan allocated $716 million for the Cross River Rail project. The media release was written. The media opportunity was organised by the then LNP state transport minister and the then LNP Premier, alongside the government. What happened? This time, former Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott got in the road and refused to support the project. So, of course, the LNP state government under the leadership of Campbell Newman ripped up that project as well, and we are still waiting for infrastructure to be built—a critical piece of public transport infrastructure.

It is just like, in my electorate, the Ipswich Motorway upgrade: it always takes a Labor state government and an activist federal Labor opposition to make sure that these projects are delivered. Because of that commitment made by Bill Shorten alongside me, the member for Moreton and the member for Blair earlier this year, we finally saw action from the coalition. But it should not have to take years and years of years of lobbying. More importantly, it is not about the politicians; it is about the people in my community who have had to sit in traffic week in, week out because this government is refusing to invest. We have seen close to $1 billion slashed from local government financial assistance since the budget of 2014-15. In the 2014 budget, the government promised $8 billion in infrastructure, but we know only $5.5 billion was spent.

I say again that time and time again we hear great, great motions in this chamber, but doing and acting is another thing once we get out into the community. I know that infrastructure is critical, but real investment is needed, and this government has shown no willingness to seriously deliver on the vital funding. To have the audacity to come in here when this government is letting Queensland down on projects like the M1 is sickening. But I will continue to fight to make sure that we hold this government to account. (Time expired)

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