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

'How long has the Gawler line taken?'—from a South Australian Labor MP. We don't have the time to go through the lengthy catalogue of public sector incompetence that we have seen from South Australian Labor when it comes to the Gawler line electrification. But I'll tell you what: in years to come it will be a case study in schools of government and schools of public policy all around the country—the chaotic mess that Labor, federal and state in South Australia, produced when it came to the Gawler line electrification.

We are going to fix that. We are going to work with a businesslike, sensible, serious, determined state government in South Australia. Thankfully, they now have a capable Liberal government in the Marshall government, and we've committed this vitally needed funding to the Gawler line electrification.

This ludicrous claim that somehow investment in infrastructure through debt and equity doesn't count as infrastructure investment is simply factually wrong, but the shadow minister continues mendaciously, misleadingly and deceivingly to quote only one line item in the budget, which is grant funding. What he needs to do is quote all of the funding for all of the infrastructure investment programs. That's how we get to $8.6 billion next year, $8.7 billion the following year, $8.2 billion the year after that and $8.5 billion the year after that. So don't come in here and tell us that infrastructure investment is falling. It's not. That's wrong. Look at the facts.

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