Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a serious, considered investment by a fiscally responsible government. I wouldn't say it's age; it's experience. If only they could just understand that good governance and fiscal responsibility require a system of checks and balances! The funding allocated in the budget each year for infrastructure projects is fully available to state, territory and local governments if agreed milestone agreements and project conditions are met. Where milestones are varied, payments are also varied. This is what fiscally responsible governments do. Those opposite, and in particular the member for Lilley, never seemed to understand that phrase 'fiscally responsible' when they sat on those benches, even though their Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, claimed to be an economically and fiscally responsible person, which he wasn't, as we saw.

Ms Henderson interjecting—

'Economic conservative', the member for Corangamite tells me. What you don't do is just allocate large sums of money for major infrastructure projects and not review or revisit that expenditure. This is prudent financial management, as the government is not paying ahead of need or ahead of the proponents meeting the milestones or just to meet the government's budget targets.

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