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

There are just a couple of comments I want to make about some of the contributions of those opposite. I think, in particular, the issue that my colleague mentioned about regional housing is a really gaping hole. It's an absolute gaping hole in this budget, and I think that every single one of us who represents a regional community, of which there are many in this House, knows exactly what is happening with regional housing at the moment. The fact that the government has spent $100 billion, has a trillion dollars worth of debt and has been unable to solve—in fact, its own policies have exacerbated—the problem of regional housing across this community is actually something the government should be ashamed of.

In terms of local government, we, of course, have always welcomed the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, because it's based on a program that we had during the global financial crisis, the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. Some of the members who are here are new and may realise that millions of dollars went to local councils through that program at the time, and we're very pleased that the government has modelled its program on that. But what you also did was freeze financial assistance grants. You ripped a billion dollars out of local governments, and that has had a cumulative effect on them. That's one of the problems that you have at local government level at the moment. Communities—in particular, regional communities—have shrinking rates bases, or rates bases that are under pressure for a variety of reasons, and you froze the financial assistance grants, and that has been a cumulative problem for local government. Whilst they welcome what you've put back in, they're also really devastated by what you ripped out.

I want to say one thing about what we see in this budget with the $3.3 billion worth of cuts: where is the legacy? Where is the legacy of this government when it comes to infrastructure? Where are the state-by-state icons—the cross river rails, the metronets, the regional rails or suburban rail loops? Where is that legacy? There isn't one. There is $100 billion and a trillion dollars in debt, and you have to ask yourself: after eight long years of this government, what has been its point? What's the point of them?

If you want to look at an absolute example of where this government has overpromised and then underdelivered, you only have to look at the Urban Congestion Fund and, in particular, the commuter car parks. This Urban Congestion Fund was announced in 2018. That's a while ago now. It was in the 2018 budget. It was $4.8 billion, part of the government's so-called $110 billion or $103 billion program—whatever it is now; I don't know what it is. This fund of $4.8 billion is to support upgrades to the urban road networks et cetera.

How do you characterise the success of this program? In budget estimates last month, $4.8 billion was announced—it was topped up a bit but was announced in 2018—and they've spent $340 million of it. With all the congestion in Australian cities, how is it that the government has only managed to get $340 million out the door? Initially the government intended to spend $1.2 billion through this fund next year, but that's now been revised down by almost a billion dollars, to $775 million. Why is that? Why has that occurred? An ANAO report is about to be released—we're awaiting that—into the commuter car parks. Just weeks before its release, we've seen the latest development in this rolling fiasco of a program. We saw announcements that commuters at Brighton Beach, Balaclava, Mitcham, Kananook and Seaford will basically be left circling the block looking for a car park in order to get to work. In estimates, departmental officials couldn't guarantee that there would be other car parks. Acting Prime Minister, we'd like to know: What are the other car parks? What are the other Urban Congestion Fund projects that you're planning to cancel? This fund has been an absolute failure, frankly. Minister Fletcher was brought in to clean up the mess of this particular program, which means there will be further cuts to it.

I also want to mention briefly that just last week I was in Newcastle checking out the site of the M1 extension to Raymond Terrace. The Commonwealth has announced $1.6 billion of funding for this project, but work is not forecast to begin for another two years. The $1.6 billion is well beyond the forward estimates. Commuters need that road fixed now. I'd like to ask you, Acting Prime Minister: when are you going to get on with the M1 extension to Raymond Terrace?

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