Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Is the minister aware that congestion on Parramatta Road has reduced average traffic speeds to just 21 kilometres per hour and that the M4 is heavily congested for more than 13 hours a day? How is the Australian government's $1.5 billion commitment to the WestConnex project going to improve the living standards of people in my electorate of Macquarie and in Greater Western Sydney?

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not Deputy Speaker.

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, my apology—not a good start, Madam Speaker.

Honourable members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister has the call.

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, can I acknowledge the member for Macquarie particularly on her work in recent weeks with her community in relation to the bushfires which have caused so much damage. Congratulations. No wonder you have been sent back here for the fourth time, member for Macquarie.

Of course you are right, the WestConnex investment will be a game-changing investment in Western Sydney, and to ensure that the Prime Minister is the infrastructure Prime Minister, this is a key measure to ensure our productivity performance increases. This is a project which is long overdue. It does make you wonder why for 20 years the Labor Party in New South Wales did not go ahead. What else they were up to in their time in government?

This project will deal with a range of issues. It will deal with reducing travel times between Parramatta Road and Sydney airport by 40 minutes, which I thought the members of Western Sydney would appreciate. It will halve bus travel times between inner west and the city; it will bypass 52 sets of traffic lights; and it will remove 3,000 trucks a day from Parramatta road by putting them underground. It will lead to neighbourhood revitalisation and it will create some 10,000 jobs during construction, delivering more than $20 billion in economic benefits to New South Wales and to our country. It is of course our premier city and should have premier infrastructure, and it does not at this time. But with the infrastructure Prime Minister in charge, it will have again.

We will ensure that not just in Sydney but also across Australia we will get our country moving. We will not be spending our money, our productive capacity, on pink batt programs and overpriced school halls. We will be focusing on economically productive infrastructure like the East West Link project in Melbourne, the Gateway North in Brisbane, the north-south in Adelaide and like the Perth Gateway and Swan Valley Bypass. We will be delivering projects across our country to lift our productive capacity.

The truth is that we are facing a more difficult fiscal environment because the Labor Party has left a mountain of debt. We have asked the Productivity Commission to look at ways in which we can reduce the cost and the time of these projects and ensure that we get more for less and in quicker time. The Australian people are sick of governments talking about infrastructure; they actually want to see some infrastructure on the ground, particularly the WestConnex projects in Sydney. I congratulate Premier O'Farrell for getting on with the job and we know that with the infrastructure Prime Minister in charge Australia is once again open for business.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would ask that the minister table the document from which he read every word.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the assistant minister have anything that he wishes to table that is not confidential?

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, they were confidential.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I refer you to page 606 of House of Representatives Practice and the ruling of Speaker Snedden, which said that it had been the practice of The Speaker in the past to first ask the minister whether he was reading from a document and if the answer happened to be yes, whether he was reading from a confidential document. I have been reluctant to raise this with you, Madam Speaker, but this is not the first time it has occurred and I think that these precedents are important and should be followed in this place.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank member for Hunter for his eloquent contribution to the debate. Was the assistant minister reading from a document and is he prepared to table it?

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I was referring to notes.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, further to your ruling—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I made no ruling.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the minister said he was reading from notes. He did not say they were confidential, and therefore he should table them. My point of order is that he should table the document. He has not said that it is confidential, therefore he should table it.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I made no ruling. There is no point of order. My understanding, if you check with Hansard, is that he stated it was confidential, but if he wishes to do so a second time that would be in order.

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You have to keep up. I did the first time!