Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the outset I want to acknowledge the member for Dobell's past as a pharmacist and a fine pharmacist at that. Much of what she spent the bulk of the first part of her speech on should have been directed at the New South Wales government. They are matters out of the federal government's control. I acknowledge that she is concerned about her constituents, as we all are. We all come to this place to represent the constituents in our own electorates, and we do it to the very best of our ability, but much of what she spoke about was a state issue. I appreciate that we are the Commonwealth government, but they are matters that are out of our control and that we handed to the state government, being the administrators of public health in the New South Wales state.

As a former deputy prime minister and indeed as a regional member, I am proud of the regional infrastructure rollout and the regional funding that we have delivered in more than eight years of government. I've been in this place long enough to remember what was done during the first term that I served in this place, when the Labor-Greens alliance was in power. There is now $110 billion of money for infrastructure across this nation, a third of which is going into regional areas. Deputy Speaker Llew O'Brien, you would know about the Tiaro bypass and how important that is—$183 million. It is going to save lives. Much of the infrastructure that we're rolling out, as far as roads are concerned, is going to do just that. During my time as DPM, the $2½ billion Local Road and Community. Infrastructure Program was established, and I'm very proud of that. The mayor of Bland Shire at West Wyalong, Councillor Brian Monaghan, said to me only the other day that in 30 years he's not seen the amount of money that's being spent in local governments. He said that it's a record amount of money and that it's going to those little areas that would otherwise be devoid of spending. Now, I didn't see that sort of funding going out to local councils and to those local projects when Labor was in power in those six sorry years under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and then, of course, Mr Rudd again.

If you look at the spending, there are more than 32,000 infrastructure projects with federal investment across all electorates—not just regional ones, but each and every one of the 151 electorates across Australia. There is increased funding for road black spots; R2R; and spending on heavy-vehicle safety and productivity projects. As you would also be well aware, Deputy Speaker, we established the Office of Road Safety and, indeed, the Office of Future Transport Technology. We established that in 2018. They are making such a difference not only in identifying road safety initiatives as well as funding them, but also in what we need to do as far as future technologies in the important transport space.

When we talk of regional infrastructure I am very, very proud of the water infrastructure that we are putting in place as we speak. There's an additional $2 billion to the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund taking it up to $3½ billion, establishing the National Water Grid.

I can recall going to see the Rookwood Weir progress in April this year. What a project that is. In this place yesterday in question time I heard murmurings from the opposition about the fact we had not built a dam. Well, yes, we have, Scottsdale dam. It started in 2018 and was finished earlier this year, in north-east Tasmania, making such a difference for the farmers in that area. Not only that, in New South Wales Dungowan and Wyangala dams have converted to grant funding. Initially the New South Wales government requested loans which was going to be forthcoming. Then they wanted it as grants so that's what we have provided. There's the Mitiamo pipeline in Victoria. Emu Swamp Dam has commenced—a particular pet project of mine—in the seat of Maranoa. We are getting on with the job of building that important piece of infrastructure.

We've delivered more than $60 million for the redevelopment of Newcastle Airport. I can recall when we gave Newcastle Airport international status. Well, now we are putting money into making sure that it is even better and we're doing it at the same time that defence is upgrading the important runway and other infrastructure there. So rather than Labor talking about any inaction; it's been eight years of action, eight years of delivery, eight years of getting on with the job—not just making the announcements but actually doing the work, putting the business cases in and delivering.

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