John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Lalor for bringing this motion to the chamber. We're colleagues on the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities, and I know we share a real interest in this area. The member would know from the hearings she has attended with me that I have serious concerns about how infrastructure is funded and planned. We missed the opportunity to look at it long term and to provide certainty to industry and the community. More regrettably, we allow speculators and camp followers to make away with millions of dollars in uplift that should, by rights, belong to the taxpayer who funded the infrastructure that gave them this uplift.

There were many concerns that I had in 2010 and, as I look to leave this place, these concerns, unfortunately, remain. So while I have concerns that we are not reaching our full potential in providing as much transformational infrastructure as we should, I can't agree entirely with the idea that infrastructure has been neglected. The numbers are pretty staggering. Since 2013-14, we have committed a total of $175 billion in infrastructure across our nation, with over 700 projects delivered or under construction. Investment across our infrastructure pipeline has averaged over $8 billion per year since 2013-14. The Australian government have spent over $12 billion on land transport infrastructure investment in the 2020-21 financial year. We are investing $110 billion over 10 years into the land transport infrastructure investment pipeline. The expenditure this year is forecast to be even higher, at more than $14 billion. Together, these investments form part of the Australian government's economic recovery plan and will secure Australia's world-leading economic recovery by delivering nation-building infrastructure projects, meeting our national freight challenge, and getting Australians home sooner and safer.

Areas of growth need jobs to make them sustainable, and infrastructure provision is a great way to create these jobs, as well as improving liveability and viability of growth areas. The new and additional funding in the 2021-22 budget for projects and initiatives will support over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs over the life of these projects. This, in turn, builds on around 100,000 jobs supported through our existing pipeline of projects under construction. So it is clear that this government is investing in growth areas. Indeed, with an election coming up, the season for local infrastructure approaches. In Bennelong, we know all about the cost of unfulfilled election promises, as the proposed Epping to Parramatta train line promised, and apparently funded, by Labor back in 2010 never saw the light of day. With the excellent Sydney Metro now flying through Epping station, the opportunity missed by Labor a decade ago is an opportunity that now will be lost forever, unfortunately.

But, if anything, this is an example of a larger problem. As are the issues that have led to the member for Lalor bringing this motion forward today. On the larger issue, both parties are equally culpable. A lack of vision exists. The attractiveness of a big cash splash at every election contest belies the truth that infrastructure spending needs to last longer than three years and needs constant support between the excited peaks of election mania. Good infrastructure is planned, created and expanded over many years and decades, across parliaments and changes in government. It must be bipartisan; otherwise it will not survive. Unfortunately, the arguments about who has built what and who has not built what demonstrate that infrastructure is being used—by both sides—only as a tool for campaigning, not as a tool for improving our suburbs and making our cities and regions more livable, let alone as a national plan of settlement.

When the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built it wasn't quickly announced to make the best media release. The plans weren't rushed out to ensure that it could be used as part of an election; no, it was planned, tested and invested in soundly. Nearly 100 years on, we're still using it and benefiting from the way it has fundamentally shaped our city. That is what good infrastructure does. We currently have three-year plans, but we need to have 50- and 100-year plans if we want to ensure we have infrastructure that will stand the test of time, not just the test of the ballot box.

See this speech in context