Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the impact of this week's federal budget on the Gold Coast, particularly in respect of one significant project that is going to be happening on the Gold Coast, the Commonwealth Games. We know that the federal government's fiscal position has deteriorated rapidly under this Labor government. Unfortunately, we have seen the government recklessly wasting billions and billions of dollars. We are now faced with the situation where, as part of the preparation and planning for the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, my city and indeed my constituency have been put in a very difficult situation because there is simply no money available from the federal government to ensure the required appropriate infrastructure and planning and works can in fact occur to stage what we hope will be the world's greatest Commonwealth Games. The former Howard government provided a contribution of some $272.5 million over four years to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. They were excellent games. The reality is that that should be the benchmark that is applied to and levelled against this federal Labor government with respect to the funding to be provided to the Gold Coast and indeed the state of Queensland to ensure that the Commonwealth Games in 2018 are the best Commonwealth Games that have ever been staged.

This is part of an ongoing campaign that needs to be pressed, given the reality that the Commonwealth Games are not just about the one Commonwealth Games at that one particular point in time. The infrastructure associated with the Commonwealth Games—the roads, the stadium, the swimming pools, the velodromes and all these kinds of things—are important and this infrastructure will service not only the Gold Coast but indeed all of Australia for decades. If we use the Commonwealth Games as the platform and as the leverage point to ensure that we install this kind of infrastructure of a world-class standard now, we enable our city to be well placed to host an array of various regional sporting championships throughout the Asia-Pacific region; indeed, for national titles to be held on the Gold Coast, and to able to draw upon a bigger domestic tourism population as well as an international tourism population to come and visit the city, to stay in the city and to compete in the city.

It is on that basis that I say the investment in this infrastructure is crucial to driving our tourism exports around the world over the coming decades. So with that in mind the Gold Coast needs to move much higher up the ladder when it comes to the priorities of this federal government. The federal government need to get their spending under control. They need to start making wise investments rather than simply splashing cash around the place. They need to recognise that it is through sustainable investment in national infrastructure, especially sporting infrastructure, that they will place not only the Gold Coast but indeed Australia on a much firmer footing going forward to ensure that we are able to generate tourism exports and, most importantly, to ensure that our international reputation, when it comes to sport and our ability to host and organise events like the Commonwealth Games, will be par excellence. In that respect the Labor government needs to pull up its socks.