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

I'm very pleased to rise to speak about the independent review of Australia's infrastructure program. What an important opportunity as we all gather here today in the Federation Chamber.

The Albanese Labor government is committed to cleaning up the mess left behind by the Liberals and the Nationals. We will deliver infrastructure projects that are economically sustainable, are resilient to climate change and offer lasting benefits for our nation. The report from the independent strategic review of the Infrastructure Investment Program has been received by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, and the comprehensive review has shed light on the mismanagement and the negligence of the Liberals and the Nationals during their period in office, especially during the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments.

One example, locally, in my own electorate, is Balaclava Station. It was one of the list of stations on the former government's Commuter Car Park Program, which was all about this idea of building more car parks at our train stations. It was one of the key pillars of the former government's infrastructure portfolio, and the previous government even committed $15 million to the Balaclava Station Commuter Car Park Program. I thought, look, it's not my cup of tea, this whole program, but I'm not going to say no to $15 million. So we said to the federal government, 'Whereabouts at Balaclava Station do you want to build these commuter car parks?' because East St Kilda is a pretty dense part of Melbourne. They said: 'Just behind the station. There's a car park there that we can put in some more multilevel car parks'—which came as a great surprise to the state and local governments, because the City of Port Phillip had already signed a deal to turn that land into social housing. In fact, that land was state-government-owned land and it was a collaboration between them and the City of Port Phillip. Now there lie 49 apartments behind Balaclava Station. It's one of the fantastic examples of collaboration between local government, state government—even the federal government ended up contributing to the project. But despite committing $15 million to Balaclava Station, had the former Morrison government picked up the phone to any other layer of government and said, 'By the way, we want to build car parks there,' they would have found out that the land was unavailable. What did the previous government do? I can tell you they did not take that funding and put it somewhere else in Macnamara. They didn't reinvest somewhere else in Macnamara; they completely deserted Macnamara, just as they did at the last election. The former government were not interested in the people in Macnamara. It must've been taken off the spreadsheets they had in the Prime Minister's office. That's how they governed a lot of the former government's spending. But Balaclava station was then added onto a new list, which is the list of cancelled infrastructure projects of the former government.

We're taking a different approach. We're going to make sure our infrastructure program agenda is one where we work collaboratively with other levels of government, where we work collaboratively with communities, where we get value for money and also where we have the investment in our communities so we can have the benefit long into the future. If we had continued down the path laid by the Liberals and the Nationals, we would not have been able to meet the cost pressures put on existing projects or add new ones to the pipeline until 2033. When you look at the sorts of examples the former government just threw money at without thinking, that clearly was an unacceptable situation. This underscores the fact that while the previous government made a lot of grand announcements, including at Balaclava station, they consistently failed to deliver for the Australian community and for my own community in Macnamara.

We're obviously taking this matter more seriously, and the minister is reviewing the report and will announce the government's formal response to the recommendations in due course. Our commitment to maintaining the 10-year infrastructure pipeline at $120 billion remains. We will be spending every cent on infrastructure, and we'll be ensuring the transport infrastructure projects we deliver are nationally significant and nation shaping. We're going to prioritise the projects that benefit all Australians, not just the ones designed on Liberal Party spreadsheets. Our approach will be, as I said, in genuine partnership with state and territory governments to plan, fund and deliver the highest priority infrastructure our community needs. It's going to create jobs, it's going to be good for communities and, unlike the previous government, we'll actually deliver what we say we're going to deliver.

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