Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

The shadow minister began by accusing me of having 'chutzpah', that fine Yiddish word. That really is a remarkable example of the pot calling the kettle black, if I may say so. He had the temerity to lecture the government about the consistency of our treatment of the WestConnex project, and this is the man who in 2014 was proudly beating his chest and claiming credit for having funded WestConnex with $1.8 billion. Let's remind ourselves what he said to Ellen Fanning on the ABC. He said:

Well that’s not right Ellen. Take WestConnex for example, we funded the work in terms of planning. $25 million was already spent from us and $1.8 billion was included in last year’s budget for the WestConnex project.

So in 2014 the shadow minister proudly claimed credit for WestConnex. But by 2016 he could not run away from it fast enough. In 2016 Fran Kelly asked him: 'Did you provide that money?'—that is, money to fund WestConnex. His answer was:

We provided $25 million for planning, Fran, that’s the whole point. They say they support planning, we provided $25 million, not for construction, not a dollar, did we provide for construction.

If that is not a world-class, olympic-grade backflip, you will never see one in this House—and you do see them from time to time. That is a remarkable backflip from the man who has just presumed to lecture the government about consistency when it comes to infrastructure.

Let's look at the facts. The proposition before the House this afternoon is that the government, in the words of the shadow minister, 'has allegedly failed to plan for the future by investing in nation-building infrastructure'. Let's just have a look at what was in the budget that has just been brought down: $8.4 billion for the inland rail project, a transformational freight rail project that will bring together our three eastern seaboard states, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. It will equip exporters in each of those states to better address export markets.

There could be no better definition of a nation-building project. This is a project that by definition no one state government can ever carry forward. If there was ever a project that required the leadership, the commitment and the direction of a national government, it is inland rail. This is an $8.4 billion commitment designed to increase, markedly, the share of the freight market taken by the rail mode on the north-south corridor. Mr Deputy Speaker, as you know, on the east-west corridor—Perth to Melbourne and Perth to Sydney—rail takes the lion's share of freight. On the north-south corridor rail has the capacity to do the same, but you need to have a reliable, 24-hour end-to-end journey time. Inland Rail will deliver it and will transform the way freight is moved up and down the eastern seaboard between those two critical markets of Brisbane and Melbourne.

This is nation-building infrastructure. The deeply misguided premise of the matter before House this afternoon is that in some way there has been a failure to address nation-building infrastructure. Let me take another example: $5.3 billion in equity investment for Western Sydney Airport. For 40 years governments have failed to take a decision which has been crying out to be taken. It took a coalition government to make the decision to commit to proceed with a second Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek. Let's remember that Sydney is Australia's international aviation gateway; 40 per cent of international traffic comes into Sydney. Let's also remember that the joint study into the aviation needs of Sydney which reported in 2012, commissioned under the previous government—I want acknowledge the work of the shadow minister, who was then the minister, in commissioning that study—found that Kingsford Smith Airport would run out of slots by 2027 and that by the mid-to-late 2030s there would be no additional capacity, even with so-called upguaging by replacing smaller aircraft with larger aircraft in existing slots. So it is critical for the aviation capacity of Sydney and of the nation that we build this piece of vital nation-building infrastructure. It will deliver better service for people in Western Sydney. Some two million people will be closer to Western Sydney Airport than to Kingsford Smith. It will deliver some 20,000 direct and indirect jobs by the early 2030s. Deputy Speaker, you could not find an example of nation-building infrastructure more clear than Inland Rail and Western Sydney Airport.

What about the package we have committed to in Western Australia? There is some $2.3 billion jointly between the Commonwealth and the McGowan government. There is a $792 million commitment to rail for projects like the extension of the rail to Yanchep and the Thornlie to Cockburn line, subject to satisfactory business cases being assessed by Infrastructure Australia. There is major funding for road projects.

In Victoria there is over $1 billion, including $500 million for regional rail and $30 million for a business case for a rail link between Melbourne and the Tullamarine airport. There is rail from Sydney to Sydney Airport, there is rail from Brisbane to Brisbane Airport and there is rail being built from Perth to Perth Airport. Yet Melbourne, this enormous, critical city does not have a rail link between the city and the airport. We want to fix that and that is why we have committed $30 million for a business case for planning on this. We want to work to deliver. We want to work with all of the stakeholders to take this critical issue forward.

Around Australia a wide range of infrastructure projects is underway. A $3 billion package was announced in November last year of fifty-fifty funding from the Commonwealth and the Victorian government for infrastructure in Victoria, including a $1 billion package to upgrade the Monash. In South Australia there is a $1.6 billion investment in the north-south corridor. There is the $3.6 billion Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan. The new M12 will connect Western Sydney Airport to the M7 and to the Sydney motorway network. The Northern Road is being upgraded to four lanes all the way. This is vital infrastructure to support and to leverage Western Sydney Airport.

Mr Deputy Speaker, you cannot help noticing that there is a strong focus on rail in this budget. There is new funding for rail projects. I have talked about the $792 million for the Yanchep extension and the Thornlie to Cockburn line in Perth, subject to satisfactory business cases being assessed by Infrastructure Australia. I have talked about $500 million for regional rail in Victoria. Of course, that builds on an impressive track record of rail projects already funded by the Turnbull government. There is $490 million for the Perth to Forrestfield Airport rail link. There is the Flinders Link project in South Australia, for $43 million. The Sydney Metro City and Southwest, this transformational metro rail project, is $1.7 billion. That will be a 'turn up and go' service every five minutes with driverless trains—a transformational approach to rail.

In Queensland, we have committed $10 million for business planning for the Cross River Rail project. In this budget, we have included the $10 billion National Rail Program, with funding to flow from 2019-20. This is designed to support the major city-shaping rail projects around the country which are at various stages of development.

We heard the various speaking points—the standard talking points—from the shadow minister. He made a series of disappointingly false and inaccurate claims about infrastructure spending. The facts are very straightforward. Over the period of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, Commonwealth spending on infrastructure averaged just over $6 billion per year. Between 2013-14 and 2020-21, the average is $8.1 billion. Compare and contrast: under Rudd-Gillard-Rudd, just over $6 billion; under the coalition, $8.1 billion.

You are seeing from the coalition, from the Turnbull government, a strong commitment to infrastructure, infrastructure planning, infrastructure investment and nation-building transformational projects like Inland Rail and Western Sydney Airport. We are proud of these commitments. These are significant. These are major commitments about delivering infrastructure that the people of Australia need.

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