Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

It is not often that I rise to speak on government private members' motions, but this one caught my eye when it came through on the Notice Paper. Whilst I want to commend the member for bringing forward a motion on infrastructure spending, because it is dear to my heart, I do think there is a couple of things that need pointing out.

The first is in relation to NorthConnex. This project was actually initiated by the Labor government federally under the then minister for infrastructure. The memorandum of understanding for the project between the F3 and the M2 was signed by a Labor government on 4 June 2013 and the New South Wales coalition government. That memorandum was with Transurban. Both levels of government committed $405 million in each of their 2013 budgets.

This is the problem with this government. We got up to 2015 and there was not a single new infrastructure project announced. It was all Labor projects that they were starting and digging the soil on. That's what happens when you lose government: you don't get to turn the sods and you don't get to turn up at the openings. They were legacy projects that we are now seeing, finally, actually delivered, but they were delivered under a Labor government when we committed that funding.

When you say 'Thank you' and your constituents come and talk to you about these projects, it's important to actually understand where that funding came from in the first place. The difference between what a Labor government did and what this government is doing is that we funded projects in Liberal Party seats. We knew that congestion wasn't just a problem in inner-city Labor held seats or seats in Western Sydney that Labor held. We knew there were problems in Liberal seats as well. That is the problem with this government. They have used infrastructure funding to pork barrel their seats. That is a damning indictment of their capacity to actually understand what their role of government is. It isn't just about staying in power and governing, much as it is great that you're all there saying how fabulous it was that you were able to announce funding for this. It is actually about delivering for all Australians, whether they live in the seats you hold or the seats that we or Independent or other crossbench members hold.

This is the problem with this government: lots of announcements about things but no delivery. The fact that they are now delivering projects that the current Leader of the Opposition announced when he was minister for infrastructure is a great thing. We're really pleased to see it finished. But the fact that you have had $1.2 billion each year—last year you topped it with $1.7 billion—of underspends in infrastructure shows just how much you're announcing but just how little you're actually delivering.

I particularly want to focus a bit on the Urban Congestion Fund as one of these iconic examples of how skewed this government's funding commitments are when it comes to issues of urban congestion. The government wants us to thank them in this motion for reducing urban congestion and improving the quality of life for people living in urban areas. But this couldn't be more detached from the actual truth. The government has used the Urban Congestion Fund to funnel money into their own seats. They were largely around announcements during the election campaign. In the lead-up to the last election, 133 of 160 Urban Congestion Fund projects were in Liberal and targeted seats. What I am referring to here is the announcement of those projects, not necessarily the delivery of them. It is an important distinction to make because—despite the fact that there have been announcements—when it comes to the actual delivery under this program, this one program has underspent by $572 million last year alone, with only $148 million of the promised $720 million getting out the door. So, not only have you got all of these announcements in Liberal Party seats; you can't actually deliver them. This is part of the problem that we've got when it comes to infrastructure. In South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory, the government didn't spend a single cent through the Urban Congestion Fund—not a cent!—and in New South Wales, again, zero dollars spent, in terms of this particular fund. This government claims credit for previous Labor governments' announcements. It's very happy to be there at the opening, yet it can't deliver even on its own pork-barrelled promises when it comes to infrastructure.

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