Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I'm following the same lines as the member for Groom's contribution. The government are about to hit 200 days in their infrastructure review. They have developed a specialty: opening projects that they haven't funded from programs that they have discontinued. They're buying unknown senators a new Akubra and a pair of RMs and sending them out to open projects, when they have no concept of what the project is actually about.

Next Saturday I'm going to a very important project under the Building Better Regions Fund, where it's been made very clear that I'm to take no part. After all, I was only the local member that fought for this project! With regard to the Inland Rail, I think the only reason we didn't get a senator to the opening of the last section of that is that Google Maps probably didn't show where North Star was and they couldn't find where this vital piece of infrastructure was built.

This government has got to start building. I believe they must think they're going to be a one-term government, because what are they going to open in their second term when they've built nothing in their first term? The only thing that's giving them oxygen at the moment is opening projects that were developed and funded by the previous government. They need to get on with it.

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