Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. Will the minister outline to the House the benefits for the economy and infrastructure of the passage of the budget bills by 1 July?

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

I thank the member for Forde for his question and for his interest in infrastructure. I actually spent last Sunday in the electorate of the honourable member for Forde looking at the opportunities for an expansion of intermodal transport in the hinterlands of the Gold Coast. Just after that, I spent time in the electorate of the member for McPherson opening the Tugun bypass along with the Queensland Premier.

Our budget delivers a $22 billion surplus designed to put downward pressure on inflation and downward pressure on interest rates. This is a necessary precondition if we are to be able to put aside funds for nation building. The government has taken the tough decisions required to overcome the capacity constraints which are hindering our economy, as the Reserve Bank has identified on more than 20 occasions and as the Reserve Bank once again reminded all who looked at the press release released by the Governor of the Reserve Bank on Tuesday. We have delivered a budget that is economically responsible. The budget represents an important step towards turning around our economic growth prospects in the face of infrastructure bottlenecks and other capacity constraints. Unless we pass the budget bills, the size of the surplus will begin to fall, just between June and September, by at least one-quarter of a billion dollars. This will undermine our nation-building funds—the Building Australia Fund, the Education Investment Fund and the Health and Hospitals Fund. You cannot put aside money for long-term infrastructure investment unless you have a strong budget surplus. A strong surplus is an essential component of long-term economic prosperity. It is a means to building a modern, highly productive economy.

By contrast, the approach that has been adopted by the opposition to our legislative agenda is not driven by a matter of high principle. This is an opposition that still has not come to terms with the judgement made by the Australian public just six months ago. It is prepared to blow a $22 billion hole in the budget and put at risk the money that we need to secure the nation’s long-term economic future in order to secure the short-term political future of the Leader of the Opposition. The time has come for the opposition to stop its short-term political games and let us, the government, get on with the business of long-term nation building.