Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can hear some chirping from the opposition over there, and maybe they will enjoy this contribution! Why would we need to do a 90-day review of their infrastructure programs? Maybe I can take you on a journey through my electorate of Macnamara. In my electorate of Macnamara in St Kilda East we have a magnificent high street called Carlisle Street. It's right in Balaclava. The Sandringham line runs through Balaclava station. The previous government had a commitment of $15 million for a commuter car park behind Balaclava station. With ministers like the member for New England in charge, you really would have thought that they would have dotted the i's and crossed the t's on the $15 million that they had allocated to the Balaclava station from the Commuter Car Park Program, their signature infrastructure program.

All was going fantastically until one small snag came up. There was one small snag on the $15 million that these people opposite allocated to a commuter car park in my electorate. They hadn't actually told the state government. They hadn't told the local council. Had they bothered to pick up the phone to the two organisations that have stewardship over the piece of land that they allocated money to, they may have realised that actually the exact piece of land that those geniuses opposite allocated $15 million of taxpayer funds to had already been allocated to a social housing project. They allocated $15 million to build a car park without even picking up the phone to the other layers of government to work it out—'Hey, guys. It's the federal government here. It's Scott and Barnaby, the member for Cook and the member for New England. We want to build a commuter car park. Are you, by chance, happy with that?' Had they bothered to even do that, they would have found out that the land behind the Balaclava station was already designated for social housing.

I was very pleased to go with the Minister for Housing to open the 49 apartments at the place where the previous government had allocated $15 million. The housing is going to a range of people, including a few people with a disability and some single parents. It's a fantastic community project. Those houses are a wonderful new addition to the Balaclava community. I was very pleased to be there on that day.

Another reason why we had to go through their projects that we inherited with a fine-tooth comb is the regional infrastructure grants program. The member for Barker is in the chamber now. He considers himself a good representative of regional Australia.

An honourable member interjecting—

Yes, sure. The member for Barker's constituents in regional Australia are proud regional Australians. I do question, though, how many residents in the member for Barker's regional electorate have been for a swim in the North Sydney Pool underneath the Opera House. There was $10 million used from the Regional Infrastructure Fund for a pool underneath the Sydney Opera House. If ever there was a landmark that screamed 'regional Australia', it's the Opera House!

Opposition members interjecting—

I'm hearing some interjections from the member for Barker. Maybe they're just upset that they didn't get $10 million to build a pool in the member for Barker's electorate. But it is just another example of why we had to introduce this bill and go through with a fine-tooth comb all of the ridiculous decisions that they had put in place.

There's another one worth mentioning. Those opposite like to talk about economic management. They like to talk about how they get value for money for taxpayer dollars. If you've got a piece of land that's worth $3 million and you spend $30 million, and you call that value for money—

Opposition members interjecting—

I'm hearing a lot of interjections. Maybe those fiery interjections should have been voiced in the party room when their colleagues were purchasing pieces of land worth $3 million for $30 million. It almost made the Auditor-General's head explode, going, 'What on earth are you people doing? Why are you spending $30 million on a piece of land worth $3 million?' They treated taxpayer dollars with absolute disdain, and everything became 'How can we try and manipulate things on behalf of the Liberal Party?'

That's not how we're going to do things. That's not how we're going to build infrastructure. That's not how we're going to govern for Australians. We are here to ensure that Australians are getting taxpayer value for money. We're going to ensure that we invest in the sorts of projects that will benefit communities, states and our country, and we are going to ensure that the infrastructure investments that we make are in the national interest as well.

There's a final one I'll mention that goes to the absolutely incompetent way the opposition managed infrastructure projects. Now, some infrastructure ministers in the previous government were not as bad as others. Some infrastructure ministers are more equal than other infrastructure ministers! And, dare I say, that's something the member for Gippsland and I agree on. There are some infrastructure ministers that are better than others. But, in the great state of Victoria, in the electorates of Aston and La Trobe, you've got the Wellington Road, which is a road I've driven on many, many times. The Wellington Road duplication project is an important project and one that the previous government allocated $10 million to. If you didn't know anything about the project, you'd think, 'That's fine; they've put a bit of money on the table for that project,' except that, in the classic way in which the previous government managed these things, that project cannot get done for—the estimates are—less than around $640 million.

They come in here and they pretend to have invested in infrastructure, but, with the projects they actually committed to, they were either trying to build car parks in certain electorates, and infrastructure on pieces of land when they hadn't even spoken to other layers of government. They're building regional infrastructure in the middle of Sydney—the Darling Harbour regional infrastructure project! For goodness sake! That was one of the most absurd uses of taxpayer funds—$10 million for a pool in the middle of North Sydney. They purchased for $30 million a piece of land that was worth $3 million. Then they pretended that they were committed to infrastructure projects like the ones in our great state of Victoria, but they didn't actually put the money where their mouth was.

It was a constant stream of incompetence and a constant stream of using taxpayer dollars on behalf of the Liberal Party, and Australians saw through it. Australians saw through it. That's why in the great electorate of Aston we now have the finest member for Aston that we've had in over 30 years. After 30 years, the people of Aston have finally got a decent representative. We're going to work through this list of infrastructure projects right around our state, clean up the opposition's mess and build a better future on behalf of all Australians.

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