Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to answer the member for Mayo's question about Australian steel, because in fact one of the key commitments of the announcements around naval shipbuilding—nine frigates, 12 offshore patrol vessels, 12 submarines, 21 Pacific patrol vessels—was that we would use Australian steel, creating Australian jobs here in Australia. The member for Mayo might cast her mind back to when I was the minister for industry, in the golden age of the government, and we committed $70 million to the Adelaide-to-Tarcoola rail line using Australian steel. And in fact just recently the Carmichael mine in North Queensland announced that if the mine goes ahead there will be 800 kilometres of Australian steel railways from Arrium in our great state. So I am very disappointed the member for Mayo would join with the South Australian Labor Party in this canard about infrastructure in the budget from last night.

Not only have we secured $70 million for the proton therapy facility and $110 million for the solar thermal power station at Port Augusta, but the Darlington interchange, the Torrens to Torrens project, the Northern Connector—these are all part of the North-South Corridor, which this government is funding to the tune of $1.6 billion. The member for Mayo might like to do her research before she— (Time expired)

See this speech in context