Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection. The member opposite says, 'We've doubled Roads to Recovery.' So, ladies and gentlemen in the gallery, Roads to Recovery was set at $500 million. The local government sector asked this government to increase it to $800 million. Do you know what they've done? They've increased it to a billion dollars. We should all be very happy about that, shouldn't we? Because it has gone from $500 million to a billion dollars. In anyone's language, that's an increase. But unfortunately, like everything with this government, you need to read the fine print, because the spin's one thing, and the reality is something else. So I'm so pleased that the member opposite, who has responsibility for this space, has raised Roads to Recovery, because the reality is that it will get to a billion dollars in 10 years time.

It's $500 million today. The local government sector asked for $800 million, and those opposite said: 'You know what. We'll knock it up by $50 million a year.' But that's not what they told the community. They told the community, 'We're increasing ceasing it to a billion dollars', and so they are. But my 15-year-old will be 25 by the time that happens. News flash for those opposite: the way they're operate the economy, inflation will be such that a billion dollars in 10 years time may well be something closer to $500 million today.

Those opposite need to be very careful about these really cute arguments. The reality is that there are 800,000 kilometres of road network in this country, and 600,000 of it is managed by the good people who work and volunteer their time—I'm talking about members of local government—to manage that road network. Those opposite want us to see increased wages. I don't want to live in a low wage Australia, but the only way we achieve this—

Those opposite are actually creating the working poor by having inflation grow faster than wages, so you have real wage decreases.

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