Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I'll take that as a Freudian slip! This budget has been fantastic from an infrastructure perspective. Those on the other side of this chamber mustn't communicate with their state colleagues, like the Labor state government in Queensland, because if Mark Bailey, who's the Minister for Transport and Main Roads in Queensland, knew that they were going to put this up as an MPI, he would have said: 'Stop! Don't do it to us. They're going to cane us.'

The federal government is spending $110 billion on infrastructure. During the week, $15.2 billion was announced in the budget. From the Sunshine Coast perspective, since I was elected in 2016, $3.5 billion has been spent on road and rail infrastructure benefiting the good people of the Sunshine Coast. Mr Deputy Speaker, you are a very worthy recipient of that. It's like the road from Cooroy to Curra is paved in gold! It's such a good quality road. It is a real exemplar. No doubt the good people of Gympie and beyond to the north think that that road is absolutely fantastic as well.

Locally, from the budget, there's $172 million in road and rail infrastructure. Of that $172 million, $160 million is going to be spent on totally redesigning and rebuilding that deathtrap that is the Mooloolah River interchange. I can hear members on this side of the fence thinking and saying, 'But that can't be right, Andrew, because the Mooloolah River interchange is a state government controlled road. It's a state road. Why would the federal government be putting $160 million into a state road?' Let me tell you why we're doing that. The federal government, once again, is having to put $160 million into the redesign and reconstruction of the deathtrap of the Mooloolah River interchange—a road that is 100 per cent the responsibility of the state government—because the Labor state government are so incompetent and so inept, ruled and led by an absolutely incompetent transport minister, Mark Bailey.

The federal government has one responsibility when it comes to infrastructure and roads and that is funding 80 per cent of the Bruce Highway, but, unfortunately, more and more money of federal government funds is having to be spent on state government infrastructure. It's like rewarding the poor behaviour of a child that is having a tantrum. You give them a lolly and, guess what, they will throw another tantrum. Every time we offer them more money to build state infrastructure what do they do? They complain.

A couple of years ago we offered them $390 million to duplicate the North Coast railway line. What did they say? 'It's not enough. We want more.' I know why they're doing this: because they are broke. They are so broke. They are beyond broke. They are spending money. They are borrowing money to pay their public servants' wages. That's why they can't invest in infrastructure. That's why they had to come, cap in hand, to the federal government every day saying, 'Please, sir, can I have some more?' It's a really difficult position because the more we give them the less they spend. We just can't let the good people of Queensland suffer because of this incompetent state government.

We saw an article in the Courier Mail just a couple of days ago about this incompetent state Labor government wanting to increase the costs of infrastructure through union sweetheart deals, to the cost of an additional 30 per cent, to look after their CFMEU mates. So not only are we paying an extra 30 per cent now—that's not good enough—they want to charge an additional 30 per cent premium. We are going to be right on top of this. If we win the Olympic bid we are going to make sure damn sure the Australian people get value for money.

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