Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. Would the minister advise the House on the feedback he has received on the government’s Building Australia Fund?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Flynn for his question. The Rudd Labor government has stamped our credentials this week with Tuesday night’s budget as Australia’s nation-building party. We have established this fund to provide critical economic infrastructure in road, in rail, in ports and in broadband. Australian businesses have been crying out for years for national coordination on infrastructure to free up bottlenecks and assist in passenger and freight movements. After last year’s budget the Business Council of Australia said this:

The key issue still appears to be the lack of long-term integrated planning to drive investment to address ongoing bottlenecks.

After 12 years they received nothing from those opposite—no action. But I am pleased to advise the House that those days are over. Indeed, the feedback from the community, and in particular from the business sector, has been extraordinarily positive. People who care about Australia’s future are relieved to finally have a government prepared to take action on infrastructure and therefore place downward pressure on inflation and downward pressure on interest rates.

The Business Council of Australia last year made the comment I mentioned. This year they said that the establishment of the Building Australia Fund is ‘an effective way of ensuring that today’s strong revenue growth can be better directed to meet the nation’s long-term infrastructure needs’.

Mark Birrell of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, a former minister in the Kennett government, said that the creation of the $20 billion Building Australia Fund is ‘a landmark investment in national infrastructure and an unprecedented down-payment on the priority projects that can sustain economic and job growth’.

Peter Verwer from the Property Council of Australia said:

The government’s $20 billion investment in critical infrastructure confirms its commitment to nation-building.

Michael Pearson from the Minerals Council said:

The budget signals a critical shift to a focus on building new supply capacity in the Australian economy. The importance of this shift cannot be underestimated.

Chris Brown from TTF said:

This is a major step forward, signalling a brave new world of federal government engagement in our major cities.

Tony Shepherd of Transfield said:

The $20 billion injection into the Building Australia Fund is a great development for the country.

Finally, at the federal level we have recognition of the government’s obligations in terms of the investment and development of infrastructure. I have from those opposite talk of criticism, that this is a slush fund. What else would they say? There is criticism from these people, including from the National Party. This is what the National Farmers Federation had to say—this is what David Crombie had to say:

Tonight’s announcement of the $20 billion Building Australia Fund is a positive move towards addressing critical transport and communications infrastructure.

There were many other business leaders, including Paul Bell from the Australian Local Government Association and Stephen Holmes from the Urban Development Institute of Australia. Ivan Backman from the Australian Logistics Council said:

$20 billion for infrastructure announced in tonight’s budget is a substantial commitment to building the road and rail networks and ports required for our national future and will be embraced by our transport and logistics industry.

Indeed, the only people in the nation who have not embraced the Building Australia Fund are those opposite. Those people who did nothing for 12 years to address critical infrastructure are now criticising a government that has had the courage and the foresight to plan for our future. They are so out of touch with their own base that they have walked away from them and are completely isolated from the business community, from farming organisations and from regional Australia, who have all endorsed very strongly the Building Australia Fund as a critical centrepiece, along with the education and health infrastructure funds—Labor’s forward-thinking budget which will secure our future prosperity.