Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

If you are concerned about debt, you will be happy to know that we will be in surplus next year and we will be able to start paying down that debt. But that's no thanks to you. You have opposed every savings measure this government has put forward for five years. Members of the opposition have fought us at every turn when we have tried to get the government's budget into surplus. Nonetheless, with all the resistance in the Senate, with all of the resistance from the Labor Party, with all of their big-spending plans, we will have the budget in surplus in the next budget. Then, if you are very concerned about debt—and it sounds like members of the opposition are—we will be in a position to start paying down that debt, most of which was racked up under your government.

This is an important matter. There is no doubt about it. We have state governments acting on this matter around the country. We're also acting as a federal government to invest in rail across the country as part of our $70 billion infrastructure plan. We are seeing regional centres, we have our studies out and we also have our business cases coming back to government next year. As the opposition is fond of saying, if we don't have business cases for these projects we can't act as a government. There is no need today for us to do anything other than continue to pursue what all governments are doing—that is, invest in the business cases and in prioritising the experts in planning. For it to be viable, this will have to be one of the most significantly planned infrastructure projects in the nation's history. It can't just emerge overnight. It will have to be done from regional centre to regional centre. It will have to be economically viable and well managed by government, with their finances.

All of those steps are being undertaken under the stewardship of the Liberal and National federal government, under the Liberal state government in New South Wales, and also with other governments in the country that are working hard on this. For today, when you look at the government's schedule of important matters, whether it be the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018—one of the most important reforms we can see in domestic violence in Australia at the moment—or the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill 2018, which we have to get done, or the Intelligence Services Amendment Bill 2018, clearly the priority today has to be the work of the federal government. There is no need to preserve a corridor today.

The member for Grayndler is not thinking clearly when he says we have to preserve the corridor today. What does that actually mean? We won't be preserving any corridor today. We have to work very hard with our agencies. We now have Infrastructure Australia, we have the Inland Rail proceeding, we have billions of dollars of infrastructure going into rail around the country and we have the state government announcing an expert panel to design routes. All of the work that needs to be done to support an infrastructure project of this scale is underway and being done. It's being financed through this government and state government. For the Labor Party to come in here today—it's political and it's reactionary.

We know that the member for Grayndler has a habit of claiming credit for infrastructure, decisions and announcements that are not his own. The New South Wales government has, today, made an announcement and this reactionary move in the House from the member for Grayndler is pretty transparent. I think members in this House understand that.

We respect the member for Indi's longstanding view about her community and the work she is doing to fight to get that infrastructure connected to her towns and her important centres in her electorate. That's what regional communities want: they want governments that will do the work. We're doing the work. The New South Wales Liberal-Nationals state government is doing the work—absolutely. This House can be confident that work will proceed without any need to interrupt the important consideration on the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018, the Intelligence Services Amendment Bill 2018 and these national security matters. That's what the federal government is for: national security. We need to get on with these bills.

We need to pass the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018 as soon as possible. I hope we do not see a third attempt to delay this bill by the Labor Party. There have been two attempts already to delay the Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018. We don't want to see a third. We want to proceed and we want to pass this bill. The government will be opposing the suspension of standing orders.

See this speech in context