Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's 880,000 kilometres of road network underpins almost every aspect of our lives, for no-one more than the eight million people who call regional Australia home. From getting kids to and from school, to getting produce off the farm and on to market, our road network is vital for our daily lives and for the national economy. A good road network is especially important in regional and rural Australia where agricultural outputs result in a GDP contribution disproportionate to the size of our population. Good regional infrastructure—be it road, rail, energy or communication technology—underpins the efficient movement of ideas. It funds energy, people and goods and is critical to competing in a global market.

In that context it is of course disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, that to fund Labor's election promises the government has taken a knife to infrastructure and regional development budgets. With larger than average harvest volumes expected this year and wetter conditions than normal, our road and rail networks are under real pressure and we need that investment. Instead, Labor has pledged $2.2 billion to the Suburban Rail Link project in metropolitan Melbourne, a project which today is being ridiculed. While I'm talking about ridicule can I turn to the federal Labor government's announcement of $10 million in my own state for regional development projects, situated at Jetty Road, Glenelg, and in Marion. You might want to know where those suburbs are. They're in metropolitan Adelaide. It is a capital city, but they're described by the minister in her press release as important regional infrastructure projects. What a joke! That $16 million would have been better off in a regional community. It might have done something for regional communities.

While I'm here, and it's consideration in detail, I thought I might ask the minister some specific questions. Minister, why have you taken the axe to $1.1 million from the forward estimates for black spot funding in South Australia? How did the Albanese Labor government come to the decision to reduce funding in South Australia for a program that saves lives? It is not reducing funding overall; I'll concede that. Funding goes up in her home state, but down in mine. These are projects that deliver real outcomes. They save lives. It's a disgrace to see that money cut from the budget. That's my first question.

My second question, Minister, is: why have you taken $1.1 billion—that's with a b, for those opposite, and referring to my friend's contribution earlier—of the promised funding for the North-South Corridor, which is the single largest and single most important project for South Australia, and moved it beyond the forward estimates? I won't describe it as a cut, but it has been pushed out. You are delaying the most significant infrastructure project for South Australia and you are putting it in the slow lane. Why are you doing that?

Now, I can't help myself; I have to refer to Senator Glenn Sterle. He's been in a bit of trouble lately. His language hasn't helped. But I want to take you back to before the last election, and I'm going to refer here to a broken commitment. We've got a few of those—275 other things. When he was, effectively, the shadow assistant minister for transport, what he said was that we would see $80 million be delivered straight up, through the Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan, for truck stops. That's a very important project. He was talking to the Big Rigs publication and he thought maybe it wouldn't get a lot attention, but we found it. You would have thought, Minister, that 'straight up' means in the first year of your government. That's the inference. I mean, 'straight up' has got to mean 'year 1', right? So, Minister, while I accept there's an increase in the heavy vehicle productivity program in the forward estimates, where's the $80 million straight up? It's not straight up; it's over the forwards.

Also, Minister, can you tell us who the trucking representatives are going to be on the panel to provide you with that advice, because you've had six months and one day, and we still don't know who is going to be asked to provide you with that advice? I feel as though it's not just the North-South Corridor that's in the slow lane; we haven't even identified those people. So, Minister, can you please tell us why we are not seeing the $80 million spent in year 1, or straight up, to use Senator Sterle's language? And who is going to be on this panel and when are we going to know who they are?

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