Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Along the same lines as my good friend the member for Casey, on infrastructure funds being sucked into metropolitan Melbourne projects, I rise to speak on the Infrastructure Australia Amendment (Independent Review) Bill 2023. You can't overemphasise the importance of infrastructure, especially for regional Australia. The built environment isn't just about livability. It's about livelihoods, productivity, population and prosperity, and above all, it's about realising opportunity.

This bill responds to the recommendations of the independent review of Infrastructure Australia by amending the Infrastructure Australia Act 2008 to amend the functions and governance structure of the organisation, but this bill is notable more for what it won't do than for what it will do. It should set a course for structured consideration of nationally significant infrastructure projects, but it won't. It should promote a governance structure with specific expertise and representation from regional Australia, but it won't. It should, as recommended by the review, establish Infrastructure Australia as the government's independent adviser on nationally significant social and economic infrastructure, but it won't. It should improve transparency and reinforce the organisation's independence from government, but it won't, and I would argue that it actually diminishes independence in favour of greater government control. These are not trivial matters, especially for regional electorates like Nicholls.

Those opposite have demonstrated in government that they don't really care about regional infrastructure. That's why we need a strong, independent Infrastructure Australia, a body with regional representation and a focus beyond capital cities. That's why we support this legislation with amendments to achieve the best structure.

Let's look at the record of those opposite. The October budget delivered $2.2 billion for Dan Andrews's $35 billion suburban rail loop project in Victoria, a commitment without a business case being put forward. This is a project that is likely to cost the Commonwealth another $9 billion or $10 billion, if not much more, should the Victorian government commence construction. Pouring billions into this over-the-horizon project will come at a great cost to the regions. More than $2.7 billion in Victorian projects were cancelled, cut or delayed in the October budget, including $174 million in the forward estimates for the Shepparton bypass. That vital project is now part of a review ordered by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, and I'm really concerned that it won't survive the review. Why is the Shepparton bypass a critical project? It's good to have some knowledge about what actually goes on in the regions so you can understand.

While the ink was drying on the October budget, large parts of my electorate were inundated by record floods. That had a tragic impact on my electorate. It caused damage to a lot of livelihoods and put people out of their homes, but we really found out how much we rely on a single piece of infrastructure—what is called the Peter Ross Edwards Causeway, named after the former Victorian Nationals leader who instigated it. There is just that single bridge that crosses the Goulburn River around the Shepparton region. When the causeway and bridge was closed, Shepparton and Mooroopna were split in half. Shepparton and Mooroopna operate as one city, and when they were cut off we saw some really dangerous situations. There were emergency response impacts. We couldn't get ambulances or fire trucks or other emergency service vehicles from one side of the river to the other. Workers were cut off from critical services and industries. We have industries that need to be going 24/7. If the workers can't get there, even for 24 or 48 hours, those industries shut down at enormous cost. Key intrastate and interstate freight routes were cut, and families were separated. What I'm saying is that there should be a second crossing of the Goulburn River.

The western route was selected and designed in 1995, which is a long time ago. I was only 20 years old, which might be difficult for some to believe. I had a lot more hair then. It was going to be a staged approach starting with a second crossing, and it really needed the impetus. The Victorian government had put a small amount of money towards some planning for it, and then nothing happened. Nothing was happening and nothing was happening, and everyone was saying, 'We really need the bypass, because what happens in the future if we get a catastrophic event that cuts out the two cities?' And in 2022, in October, we did.

But back in 2019 the Nationals backed the project with $208 million. The Victorian government has delivered the business case but has since preferred political games to a proper commitment and has not made an official request for funding from the federal government. I'm worried that those opposite might walk away from this project and from the funding commitment that the Nationals gave, because it might not survive this 90-day review. I'm really worried about this critical piece of infrastructure, which is needed not only to get the two sides of the river connected—in my electorate there are two distinct sides of that river, the west and the east, and there are all sorts of fruit, milk and other perishable produce going back and forth—but also for the emergency services and the families that I talked about earlier. We really need that second crossing to happen. So the question is: how much longer will we have to wait?

While the opposition doesn't seek to frustrate passage of the government's legislation, we are concerned that this bill will result in an Infrastructure Australia that is less independent and less authoritative, a body that is more beholden to government policy—a policy which we know does not support critical investment in the regions, like the Shepparton bypass. There have been a lot of cuts, including $9.6 billion cut from infrastructure programs in last year's budget and $7 billion cut from dams and water infrastructure projects in the forward estimates. More than $2 billion in Vic projects were cancelled, cut or delayed in the October budget. There are many, many cuts and delays.

I just want to single out what happens when you have a government that's committed to regional infrastructure and what that means when we finally get things built. I want to give credit—I'm very happy he's in the Chamber—to the former Deputy Prime Minister the member for Riverina, who made a significant commitment to stage 3 of the Shepparton corridor. He worked with the Victorian state government to deliver that project, and it was just so heartening to see a federal government that worked together with a Victorian Labor government, from the other side of politics. Jacinta Allan, the minister, and the then Deputy Prime Minister delivered that project.

You have to understand how important rail travel to Melbourne is for people in Shepparton. We only had four return train services to Melbourne, and they were lumbering, slow, old locomotives. They were uncomfortable, they were slow, and you really only had four chances to jump on one to get to Melbourne and back. Stage 3 was delivered by the former Deputy Prime Minister, and what that did was to take that to nine services. The works are underway, so we're on buses while the rail, the passing loops and the other infrastructure go into getting us nine services a day. But that will mean that in Shepparton you can go down pretty much on the hour during peak times and jump on a train—a new VLocity train—and get to Melbourne and back. That's changed the lives of many people in Shepparton. It's attracting people to come and live in Shepparton, where we have a huge amount of industries that desperately need workers. That's what good infrastructure projects do. My special thanks go to the former Deputy Prime Minister for working with the Victorian minister to deliver that. It's really having a great impact.

But we need that pipeline of projects to continue. The Shepparton bypass is but one, but there are other infrastructure projects in the mix—not only the Shepparton bypass but just the general road infrastructure. I think sometimes people from metropolitan seats perhaps don't understand how important roads are to us. They're not just for driving to see your friends or driving to work; they are the arterial corridors to get our produce either to the port of Melbourne, to the supermarkets or to many of the other processing facilities that provide the great food that Australia is so lucky to have thanks to those in the regions.

I really reach out across the aisle, and I do that with fruit, as you know. I will continue to do that whatever our differences, but I want all of the people in this place to know of the great produce, the pears, the apples, the peaches, the plums—I dropped a box of plums off at the Labor whip's office. I really want everyone to celebrate this amazing food bowl that we have in the Goulburn Valley, and not only celebrate it and enjoy the fruit but really understand that we need infrastructure to make those industries viable. That could be water infrastructure or road infrastructure or freight rail infrastructure, but we need to continue that pipeline of investment to make it happen.

We need to continue to invest in the port. A lot of that fruit and milk that's produced in my electorate also ends up in South-East Asia, and there's nothing prouder than being in a supermarket in Shanghai, as I was a number of years ago, seeing milk from the Goulburn Valley selling for quite an exorbitant price by Australian standards. That's how much those people value the clean, green, high-quality product that we produce in the Goulburn Valley. We need to invest in that infrastructure to make sure we can get it to the port and get it over to those millions and millions and millions of people that are so keen to consume our great product.

As you know, the wet spring we had last year caused a lot of flooding, and that was very challenging for the people in my region. Not only the flooding but also the excessive rain caused a significant deterioration in the road network around my area, and it really is spot the pothole at the moment, or avoid the pothole if you possibly can. I must say the Victorian government has not kept up with maintenance of roads. It is really important that the federal government understands the importance of this road network and invests in it and in infrastructure. At the moment 40 kilometres per hour speed limits and warning signs of damaged roads are the norm across my electorate. I've got heavy vehicle operators taking this magnificent produce to port and telling me that some key freight routes are a tragedy waiting to happen, and that's an unacceptable situation for a country such as Australia.

Infrastructure Australia was established by the current Prime Minister in the last Labor government. The minister, in the second reading speech, said:

Since then, Infrastructure Australia has been sidelined with a lack of genuine influence. It's been stretched too far and too thin and has lacked focus.

I think it will be a less influential body under this Labor government than the Prime Minister envisaged when it was established almost 15 years ago. By proposing to replace the 12-member Infrastructure Australia board with three commissioners, the government is reducing the diversity of expertise at the head of this organisation and reducing the independence of the agency from the government.

Infrastructure Australia is an important body, and it needs a clear mandate and a future direction. On this side, we recognise that since the election there have been questions over its future and a period of instability. In September 2022 there were five resignations from the Infrastructure Australia board, leading to several months where the board lacked a quorum of members. The government has subsequently appointed interim board members until such time as the proposed reforms can be enacted.

Megaprojects and capital cities, I think, could be the focus, and megacities will be the result of the new arrangements. I have a view that Australia would be much better off if we can grow regional cities, but once again I am worried that is government is showing its true colours and isn't interested in that. The pathway for regional infrastructure would be harder under these reforms, and I don't think that's a good outcome for the nation. Let's think about the way we want Australia to grow, and let's focus on regional infrastructure as being part of that growth. We want to work with you to do it. We've got a lot to offer.

See this speech in context