Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am a proud regional member of the federal parliament representing regional Queenslanders—the Sunshine Coast; the beautiful, the magnificent Sunshine Coast! I'm very proud because I represent amazing people and amazing businesses in a magnificent part of the world. But we all remember that Telstra ad, where the woman sticks her head out the window when she realises that her secretary hasn't paid for the Yellow Pages and she says, 'Not happy, Jan.' Well, I'm not happy today and I will tell you why, Mr Deputy Speaker Wilkie: two years ago the federal member for Fairfax and I stood up and announced that we had secured $1.6 billion for heavy passenger rail to come into the Sunshine Coast. For two years we tried to kick and drag the state Labor government into action to match the former coalition's government $1.6 billion commitment to rail into the Sunshine Coast. For two years the state Labor government did absolutely nothing. They sat on their hands. For two years they dithered, they delayed and they made up every excuse under the sun as to why this could not be done. And low and behold, yesterday morning the new Labor Premier stood up and said, 'Do you know what? We are going to do this but we will not do it all.' So because this state Labor government delayed for two years, we have seen costs blow out from an estimated cost of $3.2 billion to somewhere between $5 billion and $7 billion But here is the rub: it is only for one-third of the job. This state Labor government now wants to build rail into one of the fastest-growing regions in our country where we are going to be hosting the Olympics and the Paralympic games in 2032 and it is only going to take the rail from Beerwah to Caloundra, not Beerwah-Caloundra-Kiwana-Maroochydore. So we are getting one-third of the rail for more than twice the price. The state Labor government should hang their heads in shame.

There is also a degree of culpability from this federal government as well because, when this federal government came into power, they, of course, announced their now infamous 90-day review, which dragged all infrastructure projects out almost for eternity. This 90-day review was more like a 12-month or 18-month review. When the Labor federal government finally made an announcement, it was that they are setting aside the $1.6 billion that the former coalition government had committed to. Of course, you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker Wilkie, that, as a lawyer, when you set something aside, you are rejecting it. They are setting it aside. What does that mean? Does that mean they are putting it aside and reserving it or that they are rejecting it? We cannot get straight answers out of the federal infrastructure minister as to what they are going to be doing with their planned $1.6 billion that the former coalition government committed to. We also had to drag this Labor government kicking and screaming to keep that funding.

In the last few moments that I have, those members opposite talk the big talk about housing. But in this 90-day review this federal government scrapped $160 million from the Mooloolah River Interchange. More than 100 families were evicted from their homes to build the Mooloolah River Interchange. More than 100 homes were demolished to build this interchange. Now $160 million has been ripped out of it by this callous federal government and the project may not even go ahead at all. How is that fair? Those members opposite talk the big talk about infrastructure and housing but they just do not care.

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