Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. How will investment in infrastructure help to achieve the government's goal to improve productivity and expand the economy? What legacy in road funding did the government inherit?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Member for Flynn for his question. He knows and was part of a coalition campaign in which we committed as a government to deliver the roads for the 21st century. We undertook to build the roads and rail lines that would be necessary to build our nation's productivity and to secure our nation's future.

The legacy we inherited from the previous government was of course pretty disappointing, well short of their rhetoric. Indeed, if you think of the last two Labor budgets, they spent $2.6 billion and $3.5 billion on roads and rail. And, of course, when they left, many projects were behind schedule or had not even started. The reality is: their performance was abysmal. When they had an opportunity to actually do some things to build the infrastructure of the 21st century—the big spend that went into their response to the global financial crisis—they did not put the money into investments that would have generated real, long-term productive benefits. Instead, they built double-priced school halls, which have done nothing to improve education outcomes in our country; they disastrously installed roof insulation, and the royal commission is hearing all about that at the present time; and they engaged in a multitude of wasteful green schemes that did nothing to enhance our economy. They wasted billions. Labor often boasted about what they spent because they did not have much to boast about when it came to delivery. It was not a government of achievement; it was a government of expenditure. Indeed, just 14 per cent of the stimulus package spent in response to the global financial crisis was spent on productivity-enhancing infrastructure—just 14 per cent—and that minor, minor share continued to deteriorate.

Over the next couple of days, the Australian people are going to hear a lot about infrastructure, about plans for the future, about building the infrastructure that our country will need for the next century. Tonight the Treasurer will show how this government will deliver on its commitments to the Australian people to build the infrastructure that we need. That infrastructure will drive economic growth. It will slash travel times in our cities and create thousands of jobs to help build a productive future for our country.

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

Madam Speaker, I seek leave to table the $20 billion of new infrastructure projects that was in the 2013 budget.

Leave not granted.