John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the Deputy Prime Minister explain to the House how our transport infrastructure is meeting the needs of Australians, including those in my electorate of Mallee? How is the government ensuring that Australia’s future infrastructure needs are met in order to keep our economy strong?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Mallee for his question and recognise his professional interest in investment in infrastructure as an engineer. He has been a great proponent of the Wimmera-Mallee pipeline and of achieving that great investment that is going to deliver some enormous water savings to the nation, particularly to Victoria and the Wimmera-Mallee. There will be annual water savings of 80,000 megalitres when the investment by the Commonwealth is fully implemented, thanks to the hard work of the member for Mallee. He also recognises that the growth of our economy—and I think we are in about the 14th year of expansion—continues to increase pressure on our transport and logistics infrastructure. It is forecast that by 2020 the freight task in Australia will double from what it is today and the needs of the passenger task will grow by 40 per cent. So we have to continue that investment at all levels of our infrastructure to make sure we meet those requirements if we are to ensure the Australian economy will be as strong, as competitive and as efficient then as it is today.

Our government is investing, over a five-year period, with AusLink $15 billion in road and rail infrastructure across Australia through all the different categories of roads as well as critical rail corridors, and I mentioned one yesterday. Given that the Australian Local Government Association conference is on here in Canberra this week, it is worth mentioning the Roads to Recovery program. This is a very popular program of local government. It is a very efficient program in terms of the expenditure of taxpayers’ dollars. It is also the program that the Leader of the Opposition once referred to as a boondoggle. I do not think there would be one delegate from the Australian Local Government Association conference who would agree with the Leader of the Opposition in referring to the Roads to Recovery program as a boondoggle. It is a great investment in the road networks across Australia that feed into the major arterial networks across Australia. So we will continue to argue the case for investment in Australia’s transport infrastructure to ensure that we remain competitive, that we remain efficient and that we keep the Australian economy strong.