Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. Deputy Prime Minister, could you outline how the budget will assist in building the roads of the 21st century, and how does investing in quality infrastructure create more jobs and grow the economy?

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

I thank the member for Fisher for his question. He recognises how important it is for the economy to have a solid investment program in productivity-enhancing infrastructure. He knows that by building quality infrastructure we can in fact deliver a stronger economy. But you cannot deliver more infrastructure expenditure unless you have the budget under control. It is therefore very important that we introduce the kinds of measures that will give us a sustainable budget so that expenditure on infrastructure can grow and expand.

One of the important things that are a part of this budget is, clearly, getting rid of the carbon tax. When you have not got a carbon tax, the cost of road building goes down and you are therefore able to achieve much more with your infrastructure expenditure than might otherwise be possible. Of course, the Labor Party is all over the place when it comes to carbon tax. We all remember the former Prime Minister who vowed, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' What a difference there is from the Leader of the Opposition. His vow is, 'There will be a carbon tax under the opposition I lead,' and he will stay a Leader of the Opposition for a long, long time if he buries his head in the sand and does not realise the enormous damage the carbon tax is creating in our economy, the cost to our economy, the cost to jobs and the impact that has on our capacity to build infrastructure.

The honourable member for Fisher will certainly appreciate the extensive budget to provide for upgrading of our national road system. Like many others, I have been caught in the Sunday afternoon traffic jams between the Fisher electorate and Brisbane. Money needs to be spent on upgrading the Bruce Highway in that area. There is about $2 billion in our infrastructure program committed to improving the highway between the Sunshine Coast and the capital city.

We are getting on with the job of building the key infrastructure that our nation needs. And we are reversing the reductions in infrastructure expenditure which were a feature of the Labor Party's last years in office. Indeed, the Labor Party, in its last year in office, spent less money on infrastructure than the Howard government spent in its final year in office, six years earlier. We are reversing that decline in expenditure. We are getting on the with job, building the infrastructure that our country needs to service a modern economy—an economy free of carbon tax—and getting on with building stronger job opportunities for all Australians.