Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Berowra for his question. As the Prime Minister just pointed out, the national accounts figures have been devastating, and behind all of those job losses, of course, are individual families, extended friends and loved ones, and they're all feeling it.

So our great task is to rebuild those jobs over the years ahead, and one of the big levers that we have, as the member alluded to, is through our Infrastructure Investment Program. As members would know, we have a $100 billion investment program, and that means projects right around Australia are being undertaken right now. Since November of last year, we've brought forward new money—$10 billion of extra funding into the forward estimates—to get even more projects underway and get more jobs underway.

One of those very large-scale projects, in the member for Berowra's electorate, is NorthConnex. That project alone—which I know the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, along with the member for Berowra, visited just recently—is creating 8,700 jobs, a massive jobs boost for that area. Of course, it will have a huge impact across the northern suburbs of Sydney when it's complete as well, taking 5,000 trucks off Pennant Hills Road in the process. That's just one major project which is underway right now.

Across Sydney, we've just recently announced, as the member for Lindsay is aware, the Western Sydney Airport rail. That will be underway later this year, and 14,000 jobs will be created just in that project alone. That, of course, is on top of the 10,000-plus jobs being created during the construction phase of the Western Sydney Airport itself.

Down in Victoria, where we need so many jobs because we've been hit so hard down there with the restrictions, later this year we're going to see the monster North East Link project get underway. That will be 10,000 further jobs for the residents of Melbourne—and jeez we need those jobs! Of course, the contribution we're making to the M1, as the member for La Trobe knows so well, is equally creating thousands of jobs, as are the M80 and so many other projects.

We have other projects creating thousands of jobs around the rest of Australia, including the Metronet for Perth, as the member for Curtin and other members know, as well as projects in Adelaide and Tasmania and elsewhere. This is such an important part of our recovery efforts. We've got projects underway now. There'll be more to come, because it creates jobs, which means supporting families, supporting livelihoods and getting us back on track.

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