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

The reality is that the only way you can sustain higher increases in wages in this country is to drive productivity. Those opposite need to realise that wage increases can't just happen; they need to be on the back of productivity increases. That's why we need to be investing in this road network. We need to make it cheaper to get our products from rural and regional Australia to the market and to the port. That's how we drive higher lifestyle outcomes in this country.

While I'm on the topic of local government, and while I have the minister opposite, local government also asks for a higher share of tax revenue to go to local government. When we left office, the share was 0.52 per cent. The aim for local government is to drive it to one per cent. But do you know what it is today? It's 0.5 per cent. I appreciate that's a modest decrease, but it's heading in the wrong direction. I don't blame the member opposite. Unfortunately, she's not the senior minister, and, in a way, I don't even blame the senior minister. It's those in ERC that need to take a serious look at what they're doing in this country. They're cancelling the Bridges Renewal Program.

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