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

Can I thank the member for Forde for his question. He's another great person in this chamber who brings to this place considerable experience in managing businesses and employing people and of course has been such a tremendous advocate for his community on infrastructure in particular.

In this budget, we allocated an additional $9.7 billion of funding on projects which are shovel-ready now. Those $9.7 billion of funding will deliver a further 30,000 jobs across this great nation. That brings our total over the next 10 years to $110 billion, an extraordinary amount of money.

There's one project in particular which I know that the member for Forde is keen on, and that is of course the Coomera Connector Stage 1, a huge project, to which $750 million has been allocated. It's going to deliver 700 jobs alone. That's a great project for Queensland, which he has advocated for, for some time.

Also in Queensland, though, was $112 million for the Centenary Bridge upgrade, which is going to create 670 jobs. I know the member for Oxley welcomed this investment, which goes through his electorate, telling his constituents that he was excited that the Centenary Bridge is funded and that construction was going to begin in 2021.

Across the nation, though, we have great projects. In New South Wales, there's $120 million for Prospect Highway. That's going to support 490 jobs, and the member for Greenway has told her constituents that that means the community wins—and the community absolutely does win with that tremendous investment, and I couldn't agree more with the member for Greenway.

Down in my home state of Victoria, we have committed close to $85 million to the Hall Road upgrade, which is another 135 jobs, and the member for Dunkley knows how well that has been received and she's said that it's a great result for the local community down there—a tremendous result for the local community—and, again, I couldn't agree more.

We've also had tremendous support, of course, from the Western Australian infrastructure minister, who I work closely with, of course. She says:

We've worked collaboratively with the Commonwealth Government to identify projects that will create and support local jobs while also improving safety and capacity across our road and rail networks.

The Victorian Premier, Mr Dan Andrews, even said: 'I say well done to the Commonwealth government.' We haven't heard that from him in recent days! But that's what he's said in relation to our infrastructure budget. And of course so many stakeholders have also supported this budget because it delivers jobs: 30,000 jobs, which this infrastructure project will deliver, and we proudly stand by it.

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