Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm sure the previous member would like to pass on his thanks to the Premier of Queensland, Premier Palaszczuk, for helping him get that unemployment rate down in Queensland from a '9' to a '7'. I thank the member for Forde for the opportunity to speak on this motion, because I agree with him that congestion is a problem across both urban and regional Australia. It's a problem that's grown worse under six years of Liberal-National government because of a chronic, ongoing failure to invest in infrastructure. Those opposite seem to have come late to the party. They've underinvested in national infrastructure. Now they've woken up to growing congestion and thought perhaps they ought to do something about it.

Of course, Labor were dealing with it when last in government. We were more interested in practical solutions than in developing buzzwords, so we didn't attach the groovy name of 'congestion busting' to everything we did, but we did build and invest in roads, we did build and invest in rail, and we did build and invest in ports and in airstrips. Labor's approach to infrastructure investment was stable and consistent—perhaps boring even. But it was dependable. Indeed, when now opposition leader Mr Albanese was infrastructure minister in the previous Labor government, he was so highly regarded by the sector he was named Infrastructure Minister of the Year. Under the member for Grayndler, infrastructure investment in this country was targeted not at pork-barrelling or shoring up marginal seats but at areas of need, guided by independent expert advice. We built stuff where experts said it needed to go. States and territories were properly consulted. Local governments were listened to. When Labor left office in 2013, a healthy pipeline of infrastructure projects was bequeathed to those opposite. Unfortunately, for six long years of laziness and incompetence, the Liberals and Nationals have allowed the pipeline to rust away.

We often hear those opposite bang the drum about their so-called $100 billion infrastructure pipeline. A cursory examination of the budget papers shows less than one-third of it is allocated to the next four years. That's $70 billion on the never-never. It's a pipedream of a pipeline. And there's an old saying, 'Don't listen to what people say; look at what they do.' What this government has done is chronically underinvest in infrastructure.

Since 2014 this government has failed to meet even its own infrastructure commitments. A $5 billion underspend on transport projects over five budgets tells us all we need to know about the priority that those opposite have placed on congestion busting. What did they do with the Building Australia Fund, a reserve fund set aside specifically to provide stable, consistent revenue for national infrastructure? They killed it. It must come as cold comfort to those millions of Australians stuck in peak-hour gridlock on their way to and from work that this government has now apparently woken up and recognised the importance of infrastructure. They've at least recognised the political importance of being seen to talk about it. However, $5 billion of underspend demonstrates they are yet to learn the importance of actually doing the work.

A recent report from Infrastructure Australia—Urban transport, crowding and congestionfound that by 2031 drivers will spend 60 per cent of their commute stuck in congestion. The latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey found that over the past decade the average commute rose from 3.7 hours to 4.5 hours. One in six Australians spends more than two hours going to and from work every day. It's insanity! It's a waste of human capital and it's robbing Australian workers of time with their family.

The Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania estimates that Hobart traffic congestion costs taxpayers $100 million a year—and that's today. Hobart's projected to have another 100,000 residents by 2050. Hobart has the highest percentage of vehicle use in Australia. It's the nation's fourth most congested city, and only six per cent of our commuters use public transport.

The state government and the federal government have failed Tasmania on infrastructure. Labor went to the last election with a billion dollars of infrastructure for our state. It would have been a great achievement under Labor. Sadly, the Liberals were elected and they are failing infrastructure in Tasmania. They're failing Tasmanian commuters—we are one of the most congested places in the country—and it's a crying shame. This government needs to do better.

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