James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity this motion provides to speak on infrastructure funding in the budget, although there are not a lot of new announcements for South Australia. Unlike the member for Moreton, the previous speaker, I'll give a full five minutes on what wasn't in the budget—the lost opportunities—when it comes to my home city of Adelaide in particular. Every year a budget is handed down it provides an opportunity for the government, not just in recurrent terms but also in long-term investment terms, to talk about the priorities the government has for this nation and the parts of the country it really cares about and takes an opportunity to invest in.

Unfortunately from Adelaide's point of view, we didn't have any new announcements in investment. One of the really frightening things that are unravelling in South Australia right now is de-investment in infrastructure of the major north-south road corridor in Adelaide. Under previous Liberal governments that project was going to be completed and there was going to finally be a continuous proper carriageway running from well south of metropolitan Adelaide through the city and north beyond Gawler.

Until recently there had been consensus on both sides of politics to invest in the north-south corridor. The final stages of that, which were worked through, developed and brought to the Commonwealth government by the Marshall government, were duly invested in by the Morrison government. Unfortunately, we now have two Labor governments that are looking for every excuse they can find to delay and push that project into the never-never of the future.

There is a good budget outcome for the state Labor government when it comes to pretending that there are all these challenges in finishing the job there. It makes their numbers look better than the reality. There is an outcome for the Commonwealth in that in the sense that equally their payments are pushed further into the future. It means that the South Australian economy misses out. Investment that could be happening sooner is not happening under this government and under the state Labor government. That is going to have an enormous impact if the economic cycle moves—and it is, regrettably, on that trajectory.

We will need those infrastructure construction jobs coming online in the next couple of years. They won't be in South Australia. As other projects are finishing up there is the very significant risk—and it's turning into a likelihood—of a valley of death when it comes to infrastructure job opportunities in the South Australian economy. Regrettably, it is likely that's going to happen at a time when the economic cycle needs that investment quite desperately.

The government talked in this budget about some of the challenges on delivering on infrastructure right now because there are so many projects, labour shortages et cetera. The north-south corridor project was always due to start in a few years time, but it is now going to blow out way beyond that. The state government have made that admission, but they are yet to fully reveal by how much that timing is going to push out. We need those jobs coming online for the workers who are working on other infrastructure projects that will be coming to an end in the next couple of years. The next set of infrastructure projects, particularly that mammoth infrastructure project, would have provided certainty for the infrastructure workforce in South Australia. Those projects will not be there to pick up the slack.

This will have really serious economic consequences when those jobs won't be there in a couple of years time. South Australia will equally suffer enormous economic costs because of that infrastructure not coming online when it was meant to. It will miss out on the productivity gains for the economy and for commuters because of that not being completed on the time line that was in place under the previous government.

It is tricky and sneaky accounting. It does falsely make budgets look better, particularly the state government's budget. It is equally going to have an enormous economic toll. I'm very concerned about the next couple of years as infrastructure workers start to come off of current projects. The decisions that could have been made in this budget to bring projects on have not been made. That impact will be on Labor at the state and federal levels. They will be held to account for that because it is up to governments to invest in productive infrastructure in the future. This budget has done the opposite. It's going to take an enormous economic toll on the South Australian economy.

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