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. What steps is the government taking to ensure that future infrastructure decisions are made in the national interest? Is the minister aware of any endorsements by major international economic bodies of the government’s approach?

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

The government is indeed committed to rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure as part of securing our long-term economic prosperity. A strong economy is indeed vital to weathering global economic conditions, and the global financial crisis has made action even more urgent. Our approach has been endorsed by key business organisations and economic institutions both within Australia and overseas. The latest to support the Rudd government’s nation-building agenda is the OECD. Released last Friday, its Economic survey of Australia 2008 stated:

The programmed increase in physical and human capital is needed to overcome bottlenecks.

It went on to state:

The recent creation of funds that will channel budget surpluses into financing investment in infrastructure, education and health could play a valuable role in improving the quality of spending, especially since the intention is to select projects on the basis of cost/benefit analysis.

These comments by the OECD follow on from the comments of the IMF just last month, when they said:

Saving some of the revenue from the commodity price boom in three new funds will take pressure off monetary policy in the near term and enable increased infrastructure investment over the medium term.

The OECD, of course, made particular mention of the rigorous cost-benefit analysis that will be undertaken by Infrastructure Australia.

Individual Australian business leaders have also expressed support for the government’s approach. Don Argus, the Chairman of BHP Billiton, has expressed his concern that Australia is more vulnerable because of failure on infrastructure over recent years. Indeed, he said that Australia’s infrastructure capital stock to GDP ratio has fallen by over 10 per cent over the past 12 years. That is the view of Don Argus, Chairman of BHP Billiton, when talking about the importance of infrastructure being able to fulfil the economic capacity of the nation. Infrastructure Australia, in establishing an independent advisory council, will have a critical role in this.

The call for action on infrastructure does not just come from the international community; it does not just come from Australian business leaders. It also comes from Colin Barnett, the Premier of Western Australia, who has said that we do need to accelerate some of the big infrastructure projects. It appears that just about everybody accepts the importance of nation building, particularly at this time of global financial crisis—everybody except for those opposite, and I call upon them to support the Building Australia Fund, to support the government’s nation-building agenda and to get on board, because we do need to address the 12 years of neglect that Don Argus and other business leaders have correctly identified.