Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the disastrous Albanese Labor government's budget. This is bad for Australians, it's bad for rural and regional Australians and it's particularly bad for my people in my electorate of Dawson. Just before the budget came out, there was an announcement that it was going to be a budget for the Bruce. For those who don't know, the Bruce Highway basically connects Brisbane to Cairns and Queensland. It's how all the farmers up north get their produce down to market. It's how people get their supplies up from the city. And it's how families get around and keep themselves safe. It's also how the tourists and the grey nomads travel up and down the coast, particularly in the wintertime. Right in the middle of it is Dawson, my electorate. From Mackay up to Townsville, right in the middle section of the Bruce Highway, is where my people live. There have been two reports put out recently. One of them had to be required under freedom of information, and it gives star ratings, which go up to a five-star rating. That particular section of the Bruce Highway in my electorate of Dawson only gets to a two. It needs a lot of work. There is another report which shows it's one of the most dangerous sections of all of the Bruce Highway. So where would you think the money would go? Where would you prioritise? How much did the electorate of Dawson get for my section of the Bruce Highway—for my people's section of the Bruce Highway? A doughnut: absolutely nothing! It's unbelievable!

Let's explore where the money did go. The money went to a bloated bureaucracy, to increase more bureaucrats in Canberra—36,000 more bureaucrats in Canberra at a cost of over $24 billion over the forwards. I have a little bit for those opposite about how the real world works if you have a project—say that you want to fill a pothole. In my electorate of Dawson, there's no shortage of potholes that need filling on the Bruce Highway. You have the boss, the middle management, the foreman and then the labourer who actually fills the pothole. But after a couple of days with the pothole not getting filled, what's Labor's answer? 'We need more bureaucracy; we need to add another layer to the four lines. Then we have the boss, senior management, middle management, the foreman and then the labourer. What happens? Everything just goes round and round and round in circles, and nothing actually happens. It all gets chewed up in the internal bureaucracy.

See this speech in context