Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

This is what the then minister had to say in September 2013:

We are rolling out the NBN as fast as it can be rolled out. This is the largest infrastructure project in Australia's history [and] you can't click your fingers and just get it done.

Of course, they'd had six years in government by that point. Do you know how many residences they'd managed to connect to the fixed-line network by the time they left government? Barely 50,000. Do you know how many are connected now? Some eight million. So 11.9 million are able to connect; 8.3 million are connected to the NBN. To add insult to injury, do you know how many were connected in the now Leader of the Opposition's electorate as at September 2013? There were zero premises connected to the National Broadband Network. He described it as the largest infrastructure project in Australia's history, and Labor's record of implementation was beyond chronically incompetent. They'd spent $6 billion and barely 51,000 premises were connected.

Let's look at Western Sydney Airport. Just for context, where are we on Western Sydney Airport? Right now, after we announced it in 2014, we are up to the point where half of the earthmoving has been completed. Thirteen million cubic metres of earth have now been moved. We are halfway through the earthmoving part of the project, and before too long we will be in a position to announce who has been chosen to build the new terminal. We are making systematic progress. We're on track to get the project delivered by 2026. What did the then minister for infrastructure say in December 2009? He said:

The simple fact is that the Sydney region will need a second airport.

I can announce that the Australian and NSW Governments have today established a joint planning taskforce which will identify strategies and locations to meet the additional aviation capacity which the Sydney region needs.

I want to be clear: the current Leader of the Opposition has always been committed to Western Sydney Airport. I don't doubt that for a second. But I will tell you the difference between Labor and the coalition when it comes to delivery of this very significant infrastructure project. In six years, when it came to Western Sydney Airport, Labor delivered nothing. We are getting on with the job. There are 270 pieces of earthmoving equipment at work right now.

It is a remarkable piece of delusion for our political opponents to bring up the issue of delivery and implementation when it comes to infrastructure. The reality is that Labor's record on delivery and implementation of infrastructure is hopeless. Ours is substantial. We're getting on with the job and we're happy to talk about infrastructure every day of the week.

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