Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for the opportunity to talk about the importance of the infrastructure investment pipeline, the integrity of that pipeline and the review that we are undertaking. The first thing I want to say is that every single dollar of the $120 billion 10-year pipeline remains in the budget. We are committed to keeping that $120 billion pipeline. But we have a problem when it comes to the previous government. When you looked at that infrastructure investment pipeline—when we last left office there were about 140 projects in the pipeline. Today there are 800 projects in the pipeline, with a large number of them added in the 2016 and 2019 election campaigns. There are 800 projects. It's incredibly important that we actually look to see: can we deliver every single one of those? The problem I am faced with, which I was left by the previous government—the mess that you left—is that you were more interested in the media announcement, you were more interested in the press release, you were more interested in standing there in your communities saying you were going to deliver than actually delivering. To actually fund every one of those 800 projects would require billions and billions and billions more dollars. What we are trying to do is make sure that that $120 billion pipeline has projects that can be delivered. They are important projects, and I look forward to engaging with members as that review concludes.

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