Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The context is in relation to Infrastructure Australia being able to consider nationally significant infrastructure initiatives in our amendment to have a reasonable voice. The point I am trying to make is that regional voices that provide an input into the minister's office in a constructive way need to be heard. The minister, in her comments last night in the Federation Chamber, made it very clear that she believes Infrastructure Australia and the federal government should only be involved in projects that they regard as being nationally significant infrastructure investments and have productivity or enhance our freight routes. There projects are nationally significant in regional communities because they save lives.

The minister, last night, in a summing-up speech made a broad range of comments in relation to the previous government. She was very critical about what she called 'unallocated buckets of money to announce small projects such as traffic lights'. The point I'm making with my amendment is that having reasonable voices on Infrastructure Australia's board would allow Infrastructure Australia to understand that those investments in projects like traffic lights are nationally significant if they're part of a corridor that saves lives.

There is a complete misapprehension from those opposite that things like the Princes Highway upgrade through my electorate are not nationally significant. I have gone to the minister repeatedly to try and describe how to work constructively to deliver these projects with state government not prepared to work with you. There was a hostile state government when we were in government, and now she has a hostile state government, which is basically broke. They're not going to help you very much. If you have willing partners in your communities—and, in this case, it may well be local government—I call on the minister to engage with local government as part of the infrastructure review process. Will local government get a chance to make any submissions whatsoever? Local government needs to be heard, just as local voices need to be heard, and the amendment put forward by the coalition is all about local voices. I encourage the minister to listen to local people, particularly in regional communities, who have different perspectives on some of these issues. The amendment that the coalition has moved deserves the support of the House.

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