Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's right. We recall that well—I'm sure many in this chamber will find it curious that the creator now considers his creation so deeply flawed that it requires this significant change. But, although the Prime Minister was the minister responsible for the establishment of Infrastructure Australia, those of you with a long memory might recall that the instinct to override and politicise IA was there right from the very beginning. IA was sidelined from real decision-making and forced to play catch-up and chase its tail to justify projects that the previous Labor government had already announced without consulting its supposed expert advisory body. Labor's road and rail funding projects, its big spending response to the global financial crisis and its infrastructure election commitments were all announced without being fully assessed by IA. Headline projects such as Darwin Port, Sydney's West Metro, and the Adelaide's O-Bahn—you'll appreciate that one, Deputy Speaker Stevens—had to be scrapped when eventual assessments recognised that these projects weren't value for money. However, millions were wasted in pursuing these projects prior to IA assessment. Members may also recall that the now Prime Minister didn't submit the NBN to Infrastructure Australia scrutiny, so perhaps the seeds of doubt about whether an independent statutory body providing advice on infrastructure priorities was a good thing for government were there in Labor's minds from the very start.

The coalition has no issue whatsoever with an independent review of Infrastructure Australia to improve its processes, provided that the independence and the diverse governance structures of Infrastructure Australia are respected. Unfortunately, this bill doesn't quite do that. The coalition acknowledges and sees some merit in each of the 16 recommendations made by the independent review. The Albanese government, however, is not so inclined. They have cherry-picked which recommendations they want to follow. The government has failed to support eight of the 16 key recommendations of the independent review that they themselves promised, commissioned and announced. That's barely a 50 per cent pass mark. There are no prizes for guessing which of these recommendations ended on the cutting room floor. Of course they're the ones regarding governance, collaboration, transparency and expanding Infrastructure Australia's mandate specifically to include nationally significant economic and social infrastructure. The coalition is concerned that several provisions in this bill suggest that the Albanese government aims to limit the remit of Infrastructure Australia so that the organisation loses all effective independence and operational authority and is instead reduced to a narrow pipeline for pet projects routinely fed into it, almost exclusively by Labor state and territory governments.

Labor's national platform that they took to the last election proudly states that Australia cannot afford to let infrastructure be decided by politics and vested interests. I couldn't agree more. Public investment in meaningful, high-value, nation-building infrastructure should not be determined by politics or vested interests, but this bill, quite deliberately, does the reverse. When you read the text of the bill and the explanatory memorandum, it doesn't take long for the penny to drop, and to realise that this bill has one primary aim—not to reform, restore or refine functions of Infrastructure Australia to make it more effective and fit for purpose but rather to disempower and shackle Infrastructure Australia. This bill will severely and fundamentally restrict the independence of Infrastructure Australia in both its governance and its function. The bill will effectively make Infrastructure Australia little more than a lapdog of vested interest politics and pet projects of the Albanese government and the Labor Party in every state or territory across mainland Australia. The true aim of this bill is to bring what was, and still should be, an independent and authoritative corporate Commonwealth entity into alignment with the government's wishes.

Infrastructure Australia is an important body. It is important that the parliament provides the organisation with a clear mandate for its future operations. In this regard, the opposition does not seek to frustrate passage of the government's legislation; however, there are real concerns that this bill will result in an Infrastructure Australia that's far less independent and less authoritative. The opposition proposes to support the passage of the legislation with amendments, and I commend those amendments to the House.

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