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

I find it incredibly ironic that the government have chosen to bring on a private member's motion applauding themselves for their infrastructure investment when they have got an appalling record on infrastructure investment. Let's look at the facts. This government have cut infrastructure investment by 30 per cent compared to under the Labor government. They cannot even get their own figures right. They claim a $50 billion infrastructure investment agenda when it is only $34 billion according to the government's own papers. They mistake $34 billion for $50 million—no wonder the budget is in such a parlous state.

When we are talking about regional infrastructure that can have such a massive impact on individual communities, this government's track record is appalling. We have seen a $1 billion cut to local councils for road investment, a $1 billion cut that, I guarantee, is impacting on every single community in this country. In my region of Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast, we have seen over $13 million ripped out of council budgets that could have had a real impact on improving our roads.

At the last election, we saw what this government really think about infrastructure spending. It was blatant pork-barrelling. That is all it was. Seventy-six of the 78 coalition road-building commitments were in coalition electorates. Well I have got news for them. They have 76 out of 150 seats so they were able to form government but to commit road funding to only their own electorates was blatant pork-barrelling. This mob opposite have got awful form on this. We only have to go back to the last time they were in government, when the regional rorts affair was at its height. We saw, for example, $433,000 go into Coonawarra Gold for a project that was never built, run by a state Liberal candidate in South Australia. We saw grants for a cheese factory that closed down, for a rail line that burnt down and for a pet food factory that never opened. This is the quality of infrastructure investment and regional grants under this mob. The great pity of it is that important projects are missing out on funding because of this myopic focus, important projects that do qualify for the National Stronger Regions Fund but miss out.

The most egregious example of that is the Lake Macquarie Transport Interchange at Glendale. It is at the northern tip of Lake Macquarie. It is on the border between my electorate of Shortland of the electorate of Hunter, and all 11 Hunter councils agree it is the single most important project in our region. I think every member of this place can agree that getting councils to agree on anything is quite a challenge, so for 11 councils to agree that this one project is the most important project in our region is a significant achievement.

This project will have a massive impact on our region. The previous, Labor government funded it to the tune of $13.5 million. One of the first actions of the incoming coalition government was to cut it by $1 million—that is their commitment to the Glendale transport interchange. That will have a huge impact. To finish the first stage of the project, we need another $32 million. Lake Macquarie City Council has committed $6 million to it. Labor, at the last election, made a commitment of $13 million. I would love the coalition to match that commitment, because this project, for a $32 million investment by the three levels of government, will unleash over $1 billion of private sector investment, which is cost-benefit return of over 30 to one; it will unlock 10,000 jobs in the local area; and it will lead to 6,000 new homes being built—all for $32 million of investment. Yet this government's funds will not support this project, and it means that the entire Hunter region will be worse off.

This is the true story of infrastructure investment under this government: a myopic focus on short-term electoral advantage; an ideological agenda of cutting funding for public transport, to support roads; and a completely missed opportunity to improve the economic productivity and efficiency of this country.

I repeat the key facts as I conclude. Under this government, infrastructure investment has fallen by 30 per cent. We have them claiming that $34 billion worth investment is really $50 billion. All we see is pork-barrelling, and our nation will be poorer for that.

See this speech in context