Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

It's not the same as you've said today. So we've got four different versions of events from the minister about what the No Actual Infrastructure Fund has done. Can you get it right, Minister? Can you get it right for the benefit of northern Australia?

The most recent figures show that the NAIF has spent—spent, not made 'investment decisions', as the minister said today—and delivered $170 million of the $5 billion budget five years after it was announced. In my home state of Queensland the NAIF has released less than $2 million to only one project. Not a single Queensland project north of Townsville has received a dollar from the NAIF. The government have given themselves another five years to try to hit the funding target, but they're hanging communities in the north out to dry. At this rate, it's going to take 150 years for the government to deliver what's promised for the region—150 years. I won't be on God's green earth, and I'm sure the minister won't be, when that happens.

Labor has been calling for major changes to the NAIF for three years, and last month the Morrison government finally admitted its failures. The minister admitted it in the paper today. He admitted the failures, because they're going to change everything. They're going to overhaul the project. That's what the minister said today. The money's got to start rolling out the door faster, Minister. You talk about turbocharging. If you want to turbocharge the north, you've actually got to get it out.

During a COVID pandemic it's understandable that people in the north feel let down by the government, because the decision to pull back JobKeeper support too early has hurt businesses and workers in northern Australia—in Cairns, Townsville, Darwin and the Kimberley. They have all been hit hard by the international border closures. Tens of thousands of businesses across the north have been kept afloat by JobKeeper. Thank you very much for listening to Labor, by the way, and introducing JobKeeper. The Morrison government says it's for northern Australia, but it's cutting the very measures that have been keeping it afloat.

The minister touched on the JobMaker announcement. This is the government's priority list for jobs-boosting national infrastructure projects. When it was announced, the Prime Minister promised to fast track 15 major projects across Australia to boost the economy. How many were in northern Australia? What the Prime Minister failed to mention was that not one of those major projects was listed in the Northern Territory, for example, and there was not a single Queensland project north of Brisbane. Once again, northern Australia has missed out on its fair share. The government has failed to follow through on a promise to create jobs in the region. We've found out that, despite multiple promises to the people of Townsville last week, this government doesn't have a single full-time worker—not one—stationed in North Queensland at the North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority. After the authority has been operational for 18 months the best the government can do for North Queensland is a team in Canberra consulting on important projects for the north. That's all they've got. Perhaps with this attention to detail it shouldn't be surprising they've scrapped the National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility. It failed to deliver a cent of its $2 billion funds, but—hey!—it's just following the NAIF.

We want to see northern Australia flourish. We want the government to get the agenda right. We want the government to start spending the money it has put aside. We want the minister to get his press releases right, his speeches right and his website right, but he can't do it. He can't get it right, losing $400 million in a matter of days. We're talking about hundreds of jobs going missing, and then he finds them all. They can't even organise that. It's a great opportunity to develop the north of Australia. We need to expand industries like resources and agriculture. We need agriculture to expand massively. We need things like advanced manufacturing, startups and microbusinesses. But in order for the north to survive and realise its potential at a very challenging time we need the full support of the federal government, not just platitudes, not just righteous statements and unction from the minister. We want actions, not just words. Action has been sadly lacking under this government.

Today's ministerial statement makes it clear that all the Morrison government has delivered for northern Australia in the last five years, since the white paper was launched, is a series of announcements. That's all they've done. People in the north want more than that. They want help to realise their potential and to back in their resilience. They want respect, they want their fair share and they want action, Minister. It's time the Morrison government got on with this job. Those opposite claim they're in office. How about you be in power and do something? Start delivering real results for northern Australia rather than just talking about it and getting things wrong, like you've done today.

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