Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Perth proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government failing to properly invest in Australian jobs and well-planned infrastructure.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we have learnt that Australia's most appallingly planned infrastructure project, the Perth Freight Link, has blown out by $167 million, and that is before a single contract has been awarded and a single shovel has hit the soil. That $167 million does not include the $300 million that is needed to build a new bridge over the Swan River to actually get the traffic into the Fremantle port. Members might be surprised to know that this project, which is designed to get road truck traffic into the Fremantle port—supposedly—actually misses its mark by 1.5 kilometres. It does not actually arrive at the Fremantle port. So in order to achieve that we now know from other submissions that we will need a $300 million bridge to add to the cost of this project.

Nor does it include the $400 million net that we are going to need now to dig a tunnel through Hamilton Hill, because there has been a very unfortunate redistribution at the state level. The transport minister now finds that the people and businesses who are going to lose their homes and businesses are indeed going to be in his new electorate. So he has committed to a tunnel rather than a surface road, which we know will cost $400 million net, at the very least.

When you add all of this up—an additional $167 million that we have just found out about, with no announcement; the $300 million and the $400 million—we are now going to see a project that is some $2.4 billion. It is no wonder that the Infrastructure Australia report that was very quietly posted late last night on their website, with no announcement, described this as a project that had high risks around its costs.

We have also learnt today from this report that the state government had 11 other options available to them, including rail infrastructure projects, but it did not do any cost-benefit on any of these other 11 projects to see if there were a more cost—effective solution.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bradfield will cease interjecting.

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, Infrastructure Australia made this comment about the selection criteria that were used to chose this one out of 12: 'the methodology showed significant weaknesses, was biased against low-cost options and had limited reliance on objective, quantitative evidence'. That is, they just made up the figures. This is a damning inditement, in reality, on this project. It is interesting that Infrastructure Australia goes on to note that, whilst the business case prepared by the state government claims that this is part of a broader strategy, it observes and actually lists the eight relevant planning and policy documents of the state government and notes that this project was not mentioned in any of them.

So how did we get here? We got here like this. I will describe what happened. At the beginning of 2014 the federal government had a problem. They were about to take $500 million that had been placed in the budget in 2013 for rail projects in Perth. This $500 million for those rail projects had been sought by the Barnett government, because they had gone to the 2013 election promising that they would build a number of rail projects but they depended on federal government funding for those projects. But, because of the Prime Minister's ideological problem with rail, the federal government could not accede to the request of the Barnett government. They could not leave that $500 million in but they knew that if they took it out they would have a hole to fill. So what were they going to do? I will tell the House what we reckon has happened, from the evidence we have.

The assistant minister, who is here today, and the finance minister, Senator Cormann, arranged a meeting with Minister Nalder. We suspect that this meeting—probably when the two of them flew across the Nullarbor together—would have taken place around 6 or 7 February. Poor Minister Nalder goes in with a brief from his public servants to pitch for federal funds for the Outer Harbour—because, as we all know and as the Infrastructure Australia report says, the fundamental problem is that Fremantle port is in the wrong place. He goes in with his pitch. For the last 20 years, successive governments in WA have been planning to move the container terminal to the Outer Harbour, and he goes in to make a pitch for federal funds for this project. Forty-five minutes later he comes out shell-shocked. He has not got funds for the Outer Harbour but what he has got is the Perth Freight Link. We have been able to extract a few documents under FOI, after spending thousands of dollars and over a year of time. What we have found is a schedule of documents that shows that the first dialogue that occurred on this project between the government agencies was in March 2014. And yes, this project was locked like a UFO into the May 2014 budget. There had been no money in the state budget for this project. Indeed the state government had promoted during the previous election the fact that they had taken the money for Roe Highway stage 8 from this project. Troy Buswell was going around saying, 'We're not going to build it; we've taken the money out of the budget.'

Compare that with what Labor did in government. When we came into government in 2001 at the state level we recognised that there was a problem. We recognised that there was a Fremantle Eastern Bypass that no-one was going to build. Richard Court was in government for eight years. He said, 'I'm not going to build it. I'll only build it when there's consensus.' We knew it was a 1970s idea that just did not fly today. So we had the Perth freight network review, a process that went on for two years—a public, transparent process involving business, industry, local government, all of the planning authorities, environmental groups and community groups, all coming up with a workable plan. We developed a six-point plan. An essential part of that was getting on and building the Outer Harbour. So it is quite extraordinary that we are now being saddled with a project that we know will already be out of date as soon as it is open. We acknowledge, as does Infrastructure Australia, that we will have to move the container terminal. We agree that Fremantle will continue to operate as a container terminal—you would expect for at least 10 to 15 years—but it will do so at radically reduced figures not warranting $2.5 billion investment in infrastructure. All of the planning that went on by the Court government, the Labor government and then the Barnett government has shown a continuity of moving forward with the Outer Harbour—until suddenly the assistant minister and the WA Libs had a problem and had to come up with a solution that was anything other than rail. We see already that the cost-benefit ratio of this project has dropped because of the extra $167 million cost blow-out. Imagine how it will drop once we add in the $700 million extra that they are going to need to tunnel underneath Hamilton Hill and to get the project into the port. This project is a complete and utter lemon and represents absolutely wasteful expenditure when we need long-term solutions in Western Australia. We do need this money spent in Western Australia but we do not need it spent on a project for which there has been inadequate planning and which is really incapable of being made retrievable.

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

Mr Speaker, I add my congratulations on your appointment as Speaker. You have already shown, I think, the reason why so many of your colleagues supported you in the ballot and why the parliament unanimously endorsed your appointment as Speaker. It is great to see that the Carlton Football Club has not only won the first draft this year but also won the Speakership. Well done, Mr Speaker.

I have been wondering why this MPI was put up today. I was quite interested to know why. We were a bit surprised after the TWU in Western Australia came out over the weekend endorsing the Perth Freight Link, contrary to Labor Party policy. In fact the boss of the TWU said, 'This is not going to make my mates in the Western Australian Labor Party very happy, and certainly not the member for Perth, but this is a vital project and we absolutely support it.' That is what the TWU secretary said over the weekend. So I was a bit surprised when this MPI was presented by the member for Perth. I wondered if it was because the member for Grayndler is not here and she is trying to trail her coat for the infrastructure portfolio. Add to that the fact that last night the independent Infrastructure Australia released its latest reports on projects that the federal government is funding, as committed by the government at the election for projects over $100 million. This report showed that the Perth Freight Link has a cost-benefit analysis of 2.8—a fantastic investment.

But then it struck me. The member for Perth wanted this MPI today because she was completely skewered on the weekend by the outstanding finance minister, Mathias Cormann, and the WA transport minister, Dean Nalder, about the history of the Perth Freight Link.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will not interject.

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

We just had a version of history, but what we did not hear in this whole history was the fact that the Perth Freight Link—or, in essence, the Roe 8 and then the link into Fremantle Port—has actually been on the books in WA since the 1950s. This has been discussed since the 1950s, and the reason we now have to consider the tunnel option that the Western Australia government is pursuing—and I congratulate Minister Nalder on the work he is doing on this—is that the member for Perth, as planning minister, sold off the corridor. That is the reason we have to go underground, and it is going to cost millions and millions of dollars more. The member for Perth, the worst planning minister in the history of Western Australia, sold off the corridor. That is exactly why we have to do this.

This MPI today, given to her by the office of the Leader of the Opposition, is all about defending her record when she was Minister for Planning and Infrastructure in Western Australia.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will cease interjecting.

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

The reason we have to go through this is that it is about trying to correct the record from the weekend when the Minister for Finance and the Western Australian Minister for Transport, Dean Nalder, completely skewered her record.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth!

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

One of the things that state ministers complain to us about is the fact that predecessors in state governments have sold off corridors over the decades, meaning that they have to go underground. The WestConnex in Sydney is a great example. When you go underground because state governments in the past have sold off corridors, you have to spend nearly seven times more on average. They complain bitterly about it because it costs them more, and we have to spend more money to fix the problem in the future. Selling off corridors for the quick fix of a budget in the short term shows a lack of foresight.

Usually we talk about historic events, like the MATS plan in South Australia where a former South Australian government in the seventies sold off these corridors, but we have history in front of us here. We have the planning minister who refused to have decent planning in Western Australia, in Perth, and sold off the corridor. This is a complete own goal. The member for Grayndler, if he were here, would be shaking his head at this: a Labor Party that now wants to oppose billions of dollars worth of investment. It would include the involvement of the private sector in Western Australia for the first time and excellent economic reform welcomed by none other than the TWU, and the member for Perth wants to abolish it, wants to abandon it, wants to walk away from it, wants to stop it. With Greens senator Scott Ludlam, her soul mate in the Senate, she wants to stand in the way of it. She will use any means possible because it is all about her record as planning minister. That is the reality.

The MPI also canvasses jobs, investment and infrastructure. No federal government in history has spent more time, more effort, more focus and more money on infrastructure than this government, than the infrastructure Prime Minister. Along with the Treasurer, the Minister for Finance, the Deputy Prime Minister and me, he is completely and utterly focused on making sure that we are delivering infrastructure right across the country. There are 10,000 jobs with the WestConnex project, and the second stage, brought forward by 18 months, is underway now because of this government and the concessional loan that we put in place for the first time in history. There are 8½ thousand jobs with the NorthConnex project. There is the Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan. And government is finally making a decision on a second Sydney airport, which is such a vital piece of infrastructure. There will be 4,000 jobs just for the infrastructure to support the development of the Western Sydney airport. There will be the 1,000 jobs created with Gateway WA. The nearly 1,000 jobs that will be created with the North-South Corridor in South Australia will benefit the member for Kingston's seat. This is the project that she is utterly opposed to. At the last federal election the member for Kingston opposed the Darlington interchange project, and we will remind her constituents of that at the next election and when that project gets underway.

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would like to point out that the minister should read my submission to Infrastructure Australia and that would inform—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, resume your seat. There is no point of 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

While we are talking about South Australia, there is another big project about to be announced in South Australia, because this is the government that is getting on with projects, delivering jobs and delivering better outcomes for all Australians. The Perth Freight Link, which Labor absolutely opposes and will do everything to stop, will see 2½ thousand jobs created in Western Australia.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will cease interjecting.

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

This government has an outstanding record. While we are talking about Western Australia, there is a by-election that is coming up under the saddest circumstances in the seat of Canning. We have to replace a member from this place, and we remember Don's record when it comes to infrastructure. I went to visit Don not long ago and talked to him about the $4 million extra that had been spent by the Abbott government in Canning on infrastructure to deliver 14 Black Spot projects. Fighting for Black Spot projects is an example of why Don Randall was such an outstanding local member. There was $2.6 million worth in Canning in 2015 and 2016 alone. That is what happens when you have a good local Liberal focused on ensuring these projects are put to government to be funded. We are absolutely committed to spending the $4.8 million in 2015-16 to upgrade local roads through the Roads to Recovery process, which is a process that we have put in place.

The other issue that this MPI canvassed is well-planned infrastructure. This is the first government in the history of the Commonwealth to undertake an absolutely comprehensive audit of Australia's infrastructure stock. That was released in May this year. It is an outstanding document put together by Infrastructure Australia. Infrastructure Australia is now off consulting right across Australia with all groups looking at what should be in the 15-year plan. This will be the first plan ever put out by a federal government working with the states, working with local government and working with communities to address the key bottlenecks right across the country. That is what we are doing. That is what we are focused on. That is a government that is about planning for the future—not building over corridors because it was popular at the time and because it suited the agenda of the minister at the time.

An opposition member interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth!

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

That is the worst example of planning—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth is warned!

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

This is what this MPI is all about—a former minister, in a bad Labor government defending bad Labor decisions. The reality is that in 12 months time the Australian people will have exactly the same choice. That is the choice between a government that has got on with infrastructure—by delivering WestConnex; delivering the GUN upgrade in Brisbane; the upgrades in South Road, South Australia; and delivering, for the first time, a 10-year plan for the Midlands Highway—and a government that will rip up contracts like the Perth Freight Link. And we know they will because they did it with East West. They will rip up this contract. They will come into government, they will destroy our sovereign risk, they will destroy jobs and they will put aside all the good work we have done on infrastructure. The Australian people will have a clear choice—and on one side it is a choice against jobs, and on this side it is for jobs and for growth.

Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am astonished. We have just heard from a minister for infrastructure who does not seem to understand that the first thing about infrastructure is planning; the second thing about infrastructure is funding; and the third thing about infrastructure is thought. About this particular piece of infrastructure, we have not seen, we have not heard and we are not able to read any consideration of freight-corridor studies—no consideration of the work that may or may not have been done with stakeholder groups; no consideration of the work that would have been done to properly plan and implement this piece of infrastructure, which is not just important for Western Australia and Perth, but it is important for the export economy of our nation.

This very corridor of which we speak is responsible for the exportation of Australia's grain crop. It is important for the exportation of our live animal trade out through the Fremantle port. It is important for keeping safe a major piece of suburban infrastructure while, at the same time, driving economic growth, jobs and, most importantly, the future of the logistics through the south-western corridor of Perth. I am astonished that we would have a minister get up in this place and not make any reference at all to the freight-corridor planning work that should have been done and that should simply be axiomatic in the consideration of a piece of infrastructure of the size and scale of which we have just spoken.

Then again, I am even more astonished that in this place we see important initiatives that are beyond any question to the benefit of Western Australia simply thrown around like political confetti. The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is critically important to Western Australia. Australia's China relationship is fundamentally a West Australian relationship. It is a West Australian relationship because we are the state which exports most to China—from the creation of the Channar agreement 30 years ago, to the direct investment that takes place in Gorgon, that will take place in Browse and that has taken place in our iron ore exports. For over 40 years we have seen the growth in our trading relationship with China, and we see the importance of our free trade agreement with China that underpins, in so many ways, the importance of the infrastructure investment that must follow hand in hand.

Yet what we see more and more often is the use of these mechanisms—these tools for economic growth—as nothing more than tools for politics. What we need is a genuine Australia-China FTA—a high-quality FTA; a trade agreement which achieves genuine market access for Australian exporters that reduces tariffs and creates jobs for Australians and Chinese. It can be achieved and it can be achieved to the advantage of both countries. It needs to be achieved because unemployment in Western Australia is going up as we speak. The China free trade agreement is prescient. It is why Labor needs to see critical safeguards in place in response to the movement of labour between our two countries that underpins the important Australia-China Free Trade Agreement.

Last year Mr Abbott promised that the coalition would retain labour-market testing—the requirement for employers to show that they cannot find suitable local workers before they bring in temporary workers for major projects. This is critically important to us, because the erosion of labour-market testing and safeguards runs the risk of our own community rejecting ChAFTA. That seems not to matter to members opposite. It does matter. It matters because the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is important. The ability for us to carry in our communities, and for members opposite to carry in their communities, the importance of this measure is underpinned by labour-market integrity tests that can be supported by all of us in our community. Instead, what do we see? We see a government that simply plays to the lowest, base, political equation that it can find, and it throws into a terrible environment the worst possible language around free trade and the worst possible characterisation of those of us who defend Australian jobs and Chinese jobs in this process.

We support the goals of free trade. It may come as a surprise to members opposite that in the six years of the former Labor government $278 billion was invested in Western Australia's resources sector—$278 billion. Since the election of this mob over here, there has been not one dollar of new investment.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an extraordinary contribution from the member for Brand. He really seems to be straddling the proverbial barbed-wire fence with one foot on either side. For the record, the government has concluded three new free trade agreements—with China, Korea and Japan. These were put into the too-hard basket under the previous government. Job creation and job growth is at the centre of everything that this government does. We have the largest infrastructure rollout in Australian history reaching into every state and delivering more roads and better infrastructure. Since the beginning of this year, nearly 163,000 new jobs have been created—an average of 23,000 new jobs per month. Last month, 38½ thousand jobs were created.

I took the MPI on face value—the government failing to properly invest in Australian jobs and well-planned infrastructure. We have heard from two members from Western Australia and it seems they have a more narrow focus. However, I will speak on my state. South Australia still needs to transform its economy. Unemployment is at 8.1 per cent, where we have had a state Labor government for 13½ years, and business confidence is low. University of South Australia business professor Dick Blandy has said that South Australia cannot take a silver bullet approach to economic reform. He said that what it needs is the liberation of small and medium sized businesses, which are far more likely to add jobs in the future.

The coalition want to unlock that. We want to see South Australia make that transition. We recently announced a $5½ billion small business package, the largest small business package in Australia's history. When the Minister for Small Business recently visited South Australia there was nothing but welcome for this policy and the jobs and opportunities that it will create.

Next, we move to frigates. In the previous six years of the Labor government how many naval vessels did they commission? Not one. How many orders did they place for a naval vessel? Not one. It is absolute hypocrisy for those opposite to talk about investment in Australian jobs when the 'valley of death' and job losses in naval shipbuilding were a direct result of their failure to act for six years. The coalition are doing what we can to fix this. We are bringing forward the offshore patrol vessels and future frigates. This will preserve up to 1,000 jobs that would have otherwise been lost and will guarantee up to 2,500 long-term shipbuilding jobs, primarily in South Australia.

Mr Champion interjecting—

I take the interjection from the member for Wakefield, who is really a 'glass half empty' kind of guy. The Labor Premier, Jay Weatherill, said that the future frigates announcement:

… creates the continuity and jobs that workers here in this state and around the nation want …

So the news on future frigates is good news for jobs in South Australia. They are a vote for confidence in our local shipbuilding industry.

Next, I want to talk about infrastructure: South Road, Darlington. The Labor Party promised to fix South Road, Darlington, in 2007. They promised, again, in 2008 and, again, in 2009. They never delivered it; they broke that promise. There were six years of broken promises. This is an exciting project, which means that for residents of the south, residents in the member for Kingston's electorate and mine, will now have a free-flowing journey all the way to Daws Road. It will cost $620 million, and $496 million will come from the coalition government. So we are providing 80 per cent of the funding.

Anyone who is following this debate can remember that this required the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, the member for Mayo, to play hardball with the state Labor government. But we have come up with a great outcome for commuters and we are also seeing the Torrens to Torrens project going ahead. So we have a long-term vision to see the north-south corridor, with free-flowing traffic, going all the way from Darlington to Winfield. The Darlington upgrade will create 370 jobs each year.

Lastly, what would a Labor example be of well-planned infrastructure? The NBN? When we came to government, after six years of a Labor government, how many brownfield-residents in my electorate were connected to the NBN? How many do you think? Absolute zero. Former senator Don Farrell said 10,000 were being connected. It was not true. Recently, the Minister for Communications announced a doubling of the NBN workforce. That means an additional 400 jobs in South Australia. Jobs are at the centre of everything this government does.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Boothby's conclusions sound more like a forlorn hope than an actual reality. It is clear that he lives in some sort of bizarre Bizarro World, in a sort of alternative universe. There are only two issues in South Australia and they are submarines, which we all know the Prime Minister outsourced to Japan. We all know that the National Security Committee of Cabinet signed off on it—with a press release to go out—outsourcing our submarines to Japan. We all know it happened; it has not been denied. Members for Boothby and Hindmarsh and others all have to roll in here and pretend that it is otherwise. Never mention a submarine; talk about all things naval. They promised all these frigates out into the never-never. They will build everything in South Australia except for submarines, which are next to be built.

And of course we know all about the car industry, don't we? Here is a headline, dated 11 December, 2013: 'Hockey dares GM to leave'. We all remember that headline. We all remember the government, the Deputy Prime Minister and others up here, basically daring the car industry to leave. What an approach to foreign investment—we have never seen anything like it—daring a company not to invest in Australia. It is absolutely extraordinary. Then the coalition come in here and say: 'But the unemployment rate is 8.2 per cent. Terrible news. Who would've thought it'? The fact is that they knocked back billions of dollars of investment that would have saved 10,000 jobs in the auto industry and hundreds and hundreds of business that hang off it. And now we wonder why we have a jobs crisis in South Australia. I can tell you why. It is because of the Abbott government, because of Treasurer Hockey and because of these people in government, as we speak.

Do not take my word for it. Listen to what Associate Professor John Spoehr said about the unemployment rate:

In my view this is a male unemployment crisis …

Then he pointed out that male employment dropped in South Australia by 8,000. He went on:

It’s been brewing for a while but now it’s obvious that we are in the midst of a male unemployment crisis that will get much worse as the effects of the auto closure and downturn in construction impact over the next year or so …

And further:

I didn’t expect it to hit as hard as this as early as it has … It’s even surprised me.

That is what John Spoehr, from Adelaide uni, said. He knows something about the South Australian labour market. He has been out there at the Stretton Centre, in my electorate—a new centre, funded by the Suburban Jobs Program, by a previous Labor government. The sum of $10 million was invested, along with all the other millions of dollars that have been invested in Edinburgh, the Northern Expressway and all the infrastructure projects that have been delivered while Labor was in government. The Stretton centre is an absolute success story. It will be planning for the future around jobs. And guess what? It was due to be opened a couple of weeks ago, while this parliament was sitting, by Premier Weatherill. But the opening was cancelled and I will tell you why. This government wants to claim the previous government's centre, because the Assistant Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham, wants to rock up and claim that project, just like the coalition did when it recently re-turned the sod on Torrens to Torrens. We have the member for Boothby talking about infrastructure—and what do we find? We find that this is a government that is sitting on its hands. And while it is sitting on its hands, instead of planning, it wants to re-announce old projects!

We just had the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, the member for Mayo, in here, hinting that there is going to be another big announcement. We all know what that will be. It will be the Northern Connector, which has been planned for about the last 10 years. This project has been ready to go. You would have thought, when those opposite were closing down the car industry, that they might have something extra to say.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What did you do in six years!

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is when Patrick Conlon was looking at it. This is not a new project. This is one that was shovel-ready a long time ago. Yet we have the minister for infrastructure in here wanting golf claps because he is going to announce a project that was ready to go a long time ago!

What we have here is a government that acts politically on infrastructure. The member for Boothby basically admitted it when he talked about the Darlington interchange. That investment was just to save him. It was the most expensive election commitment we have ever seen, just to save his margin at the last election—or maybe the one before that. This is the way this government acts. It acts politically. It does not act; it reacts to things. It does not address jobs, it does not address infrastructure and it is certainly no friend of South Australia!

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have rewritten this MPI to make more sense. I have rewritten it to say: how is the government investing in Australian jobs and well-planned infrastructure? It is a shame I only have five minutes, because I could literally take up 50! I will go through some very clear examples in my electorate of how we are investing in well-planned infrastructure and also in Australian jobs.

I am going to start with the Pacific Highway. The Pacific Highway has about $7 billion left to be spent on it. Five billion dollars of that alone is going to be spent on the Ballina to Woolgoolga section. We know that the primary reason that we invest in infrastructure on highways like this is to reduce fatalities. The Pacific Highway now has the lowest level of fatalities that it has had in decades. That is because the number of fatalities has fallen markedly in the areas where the dual duplication has been completed. However, in the areas where the dual duplication has not been completed there are still far too many fatalities. That is the primary reason.

Also, obviously, there were 3,000 to 4,000 direct jobs created during its construction. And when you count the indirect jobs, there were anywhere up to about 10,000 jobs that resulted from this dual duplication—which is wonderful. On its completion, it is going to be wonderful for my community and communities around because commerce, transport, tourism will all be so much easier—all because of this well-planned piece of infrastructure.

Why do I mention the highway? I mention it because there was a difference at the last election between us and the previous government. I acknowledge that the previous federal government were at one stage funding 80 per cent of the Pacific Highway—with 20 per cent state funding. However, when there was a change in state government they quite cynically wanted to change the funding formula, and they only funded 50 per cent with 50 per cent state funding. We went to the previous election with a promise to reinstate the 80-20 rule, to make sure that this really important piece of infrastructure was maintained in order to reduce fatalities, to bring in jobs and to continue the other things—and we have done that.

Just a month or so ago I had the great pleasure of opening the office of Pacific Complete in Grafton. Pacific Complete won the tender to lead the consortium for the Ballina to Woolgoolga section upgrade. Up to 200 people alone are going to be working just for Pacific Complete, who are responsible for managing the project between Ballina and Woolgoolga. Again, this will be a great piece of infrastructure—and there will be jobs.

We have increased Roads to Recovery spending to local councils around the country enormously. There are five in my electorate: Kyogle used to get $700,000; we are going to give them $2 million per year over the next two years. Ballina was $590,000, and is going to get $1.8 million per year over the next two years. Clarence Valley used to get $1.4 million; we are going to be giving them $4 million per year over the next two years. Lismore at $880,000, will be getting $2½ million per year, and Richmond Valley at $700,000 a year, will be getting over $2 million per year. Again, increase in infrastructure—well-planned infrastructure—and job creation.

There are 11 new base stations for mobile phones in my electorate: Babyl Creek, Copmanhurst, two at Bonalbo, Ettrick, Bentley, Hernani, Lower Peacock, Nymboida and Culmaran Creek. These are great examples of infrastructure spend and job creation

I notice a difference in the words of the other side from earlier in the year about the free trade agreements. The biggest private employer in my electorate is the Northern Cooperative Meat Company in Casino. They employ 1,200 people. The free trade agreement with China is exceptionally important to them. They are very happy with it, because China has gone from almost negligible on their sales sheet to now being one of the biggest buyers of both frozen and chilled beef from that cooperative. I know that the 1,200 people who work there are very happy that they will export 70 per cent to per cent of their product under this free trade agreement. Norco Cooperative, another very big private employer in my electorate, is starting to export fresh milk to China and other countries and they are very happy with the agreement.

I could go on about the farming community, the Maccas, the beef and the dairy. They are all very happy with this free trade agreement. We are into job creation and we are into well-planned infrastructure spend.

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is vitally important that we take this opportunity to focus on a project that is wrong on so many levels—a project that should be stopped before a great deal of pointless harm is done and a great deal of public funding is wasted.

As my colleagues have made abundantly clear, the Perth Freight Link is not worth the paper it is written on. In fact, it is a fair question as to whether it is written on any paper it all! It is a project that was simply pulled out of the hat of political expediency and carelessness, with no regard for the damage and waste involved. Nobody knows or can explain where this crazy project came from.

What we do know is that the Abbott government, in an apparent state of budget emergency and when every cent was allegedly precious, decided to throw $1 billion at the Barnett government to build the mother-of-all roads, a super-sized truck freeway that WA never asked for and never planned—a road whose only logic is to underwrite the privatisation of Fremantle Port, which is wrong in itself—at the cost of sensible long-term freight planning and long-established neighbourhood amenity.

As the member for Perth has pointed out very eloquently, the total cost of the project has now soared above $2 billion—$2 billion for a road no-one wants at the extraordinary expense of sensible, strategic transport and infrastructure planning for the long term. I am very grateful to my colleagues today for their comprehensive demolition of the folly that is the Perth Freight Link. I especially thank the member for Perth, whose track record in delivering genuinely transformative transport projects is unparalleled.

The clear and present danger in my electorate is stage 1 of the Perth Freight Link project, a completely new road, called Roe Highway stage 8, that was deemed unnecessary more than a decade ago, that was judged unacceptable by the Environmental Protection Authority more than a decade ago, at a time when the EPA's judgement was considered meaningful. At that time the EPA said that Roe 8 would 'lead to the ecological values of the area as a whole being diminished in the long term' and that 'every effort should be made to avoid this'.

My community is very conscious that, while the entire Perth Freight Link project has countless unresolved problems and issues, the WA government retains a maniacal focus on crashing ahead with six lanes of bitumen through the middle of the Beeliar Wetlands from Kwinana Freeway to Stock Road. I want to put forward, on behalf of the community I represent—tens of thousands of households and families—the impact on local people in the Fremantle electorate. I want to mention Mr Hume, a Noongar elder, who died only a few months ago, and who consistently applied his incredible energy and leadership to the protection of the Beeliar Wetlands and its Indigenous heritage. North Lake and Bibra Lake, which this road will rip apart, are known as Coolbellup and Walliabup to the Beeliar group of the Whadjuk-Noongar. There is archaeological and cultural evidence that these wetlands were the site of semipermanent camps, that they were a birth site and also a traditional burial ground.

I want to mention Gail Beck and the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, which represents the traditional owners, who have expressed their unanimous opposition to this road. I want to mention Tania Smirke and her family, with four young kids, who live in Palmyra and received a letter out of the blue, as did hundreds of people, telling them their house may need to be demolished. I want to mention Native ARC and the Cockburn Wetlands Education Centre for the work they do to engage people across WA in the beauty and magic of Coolbellup and Walliabup. I want to mention Felicity McGeorge, Kate Kelly and all those involved in the Save the Beeliar Wetlands community action group for their indefatigable fight over many years. I want to mention Christine Cooper and the Bibra Lake Residents Association for their work in identifying the military heritage that is at risk. I want to mention the Rethink the Link alliance, which has brought together all these groups and more in a widening and united front that will fight against the Perth Freight Link and that will fight for a sustainable transport future.

Finally, I want to mention Joe Branco, a representative of the North Lake Residents Association, who has fought against the destruction of the wetlands for more than 20 years, who has stood in front of the bulldozers and who will stand in front of the bulldozers again. And I want to make it clear that I will be standing with Joe, with Gail, with Felicity, with Christine, with Kate, with Tania and with thousands of others if that day should come, because there is a steely determination, hardened over many years and many battles, that these precious, rare, fragile, remnant wetlands will not be ruined by an outdated, unnecessary, massively expensive and wasteful truck freeway; that our neighbourhoods, from the freeway to the port, will not be sacrificed to the blindness and carelessness of the road-mad Abbott and Barnett governments.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I saw the matter for discussion in today's MPI from the member for Perth, I was staggered. Let us remind the House of Labor's misleading statement: 'The Government is failing to properly invest in Australian jobs and well-planned infrastructure.' What a load of hypocrisy! Where to do I start, Mr Deputy Speaker?

I know. Let us start with Adani Mining and the Carmichael mine—Queensland's biggest coalmining project in my electorate of Capricornia. Our government supports this project, which would create over 10,000 jobs. That is 10,000 construction jobs, followed by ongoing operational jobs. As for infrastructure, the Adani project would build the most important coal rail project in modern Queensland and upgrade export and shipping infrastructure at Abbot Point. This project is worth $20 billion to Queensland. But it is under threat—not from our government but from Labor over there and their Greens mates!

Mr Deputy Speaker, you might be forgiven for thinking that Labor and the Greens are the same party. There is no point of difference when it comes to destroying jobs in Central Queensland. They are both guilty. The Greens and Labor have thrown a hand grenade at the Adani project. They are trying to stop progress on $20 billion job-creating infrastructure. The Greens have no policy on job creation—or on funding welfare and pensions, for that matter. But they thought it was a good idea to stop the Adani project by taking court action. And Labor has been noticed in their silence.

As the Prime Minister indicated yesterday, Adani needs to go ahead. We want it to go ahead. This project creates the exact thing that Labor is criticising us for today, and that is significant jobs and significant infrastructure   . If Labor and the Greens were serious about the jobs of mining families in Central Queensland, they would get out of the way and let Adani move forward.

The tragedy about this is that the Labor Party in Queensland provided $50,000 to the very Greens group that took the current court action to directly halt the project. You heard me correctly: Labor in this country is funding the Greens to stop the development of important job-creating infrastructure in Capricornia. Labor was also the party that introduced 100 per cent fly-in fly-out contracts on Central Queensland coalmines. Labor's 100 per cent FIFO contracts have obliterated local towns like Moranbah, Dysart and Nebo.

We in the National Party believe that Labor's practice of 100 per cent fly-in fly-out workforces, which shuts local workers out of local coalmines, amounts to geographic discrimination. In contrast, the National Party is committed to investing in infrastructure projects in Central Queensland to provide hundreds of jobs. This investment in job-creating infrastructure includes: $428 million for the Mackay ring-road, which will create 600 jobs; $166.1 million for Peak Downs Highway safety works, 295 jobs; $136 million for the Yeppen floodplain upgrade, 200 jobs; $12.5 million for the Kin Kora roundabout, 78 jobs; $86 million for Bruce Highway pavement widening in the Flynn and Capricornia electorates, 46 jobs; $8.8 million for the Bruce Highway Sarina northern access upgrade, 32 jobs; $105.4 million for Bruce Highway black spots northwards of Sarina, 30 jobs; $110 million for Bruce Highway overtaking lanes in the Flynn and Capricornia electorates, 24 jobs; $9.6 million for Bruce Highway pavement widening in areas from St Lawrence to Bowen, 18 jobs; $320 million for the Bruce Highway safety pack, five new jobs;    $46 million for Roads to Recovery and black spot funding to local councils, dozens of local jobs; and $115 million to local councils for local roads and streets under the Roads to Recovery program. This is clear evidence that our government is not failing to invest in Australian jobs and well-planned infrastructure.

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It shows how badly this government is failing infrastructure that the last speaker could not go the five minutes on this important issue.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

She just talked about our projects.

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

She had run out of Labor projects to announce—projects that we had not only announced but funded. But that goes to this whole issue. The four previous Labor speakers did an excellent job outlining the litany of failures around infrastructure planning by the current government. I would like to explore why this is so and why they have failed. While it would be improper to attribute blame to one individual, I think that there is one individual at the heart of this, and that is the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, the member for Mayo, who is a great adornment to the Liberal Party.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Very good with footpaths!

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He is very good with footpaths. It is funny that you mention it, the member for Moreton; I might get to that in a moment. But why have they failed infrastructure? It is because their assistant minister is a failure as a minister. He is a failure because—instead of looking at infrastructure planning clinically and taking the best advice from independent experts—he goes on jaunts. We had revelations last week of his propensity to go to Norfolk Island. I have an article here labelled, 'Minister defends island trip to promote thrifty spending'. This is a particularly good one, I found, because the assistant minister spent $25,000 on VIP flights to Norfolk Island to give a speech urging the residents of Norfolk Island to cut their spending. Let me repeat that: he spent $25,000 of taxpayers' money to go to Norfolk Island to tell them that the government had no money. This is the calibre of the individual that we have.

Then, shortly after that, we had another article by the Adelaide Advertiser, entitled, 'Rocky path for Jamie on Norfolk'. This one is special. This one is my favourite, because he spent another 25 grand—that is, more than the equivalent of one person's annual pension—to go to Norfolk Island to do one thing: announce that they were going to build a footpath. Let me repeat that: 25 grand to announce a footpath. I see some smiles from members of the National Party over there. The National Party love pork-barrelling, but not even they would sink to these debts. At least they got a cheese factory that burned down, a railway line that went nowhere or something else. They got more than a footpath. The member for Mayo spent $25,000 to announce a footpath! There are a couple of problems besides the spending of $25,000. The footpath had already begun construction, funded by the local community collecting donations and built by volunteer labour. Only the member for Mayo—the brains trust behind Work Choices and the brains trust behind Steve Marshall's failed South Australia election campaign—could travel on a VIP jet and spent 25 grand to announce a footpath that had already begun construction and that he was not even funding! The community of Norfolk Island were funding it.

It is no surprise that the assistant minister's response to this embarrassing saga was not to cop it on the chin—even though there is the irony that he was the Liberal Party's waste watch spokesperson when they were in opposition and that he released this tome on supposed Labor waste. I would submit that his two trips would be No. 1 and No. 2 in that book, if he had any balance. He did not respond by copping it on the chin. He responded by putting a media ban on the Adelaide Advertiser. That is the maturity of the member for Mayo. He blamed the messenger. He blamed the journalist involved and said that he would no longer respond to the Adelaide Advertiser's inquiries. I am sure that the Adelaide Advertiser is greatly heartbroken about that! No wonder the senior minister does not even trust the member for Mayo to get his sandwich order right. No wonder those opposite do not even trust the member for Mayo to get ham sandwiches for Warren Truss.

This is a sad indictment of a government that has presided over massive infrastructure cuts. We saw $2 billion cut from infrastructure in the 2015 budget. In 2014, we saw a $925 million cut to financial assistance grants to local councils. Those cuts led directly to $13 million in cuts to my two local government areas, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle. We have seen an East West Link with a cost-benefit analysis of 45c. Let me repeat that: for every dollar of Commonwealth investment, it returns 45c. Only a minister who could spend $25,000 to travel to Norfolk Island to announce a footpath would think that returning 45c for every $1 spent is a good deal for taxpayers. This is the calibre of the government we have over there. We have had six months of good government! Well, God help us when they get governing really seriously, because this is a joke. They are an embarrassment and they need to be kicked out at the next possible opportunity.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Abbott government has a comprehensive strategic plan to invest in nation-building infrastructure and assist the private sector to create jobs. Since the election in September 2013, a total of 335,800 new jobs have been created. This year alone, 163,000 new jobs have been created. Economic growth and job creation are being facilitated through a range of measures and policies including deregulation, small business tax cuts, free trade agreements, vocational education and training, and the repeal of the mining and carbon taxes.

The budget contained $5.5 billion in the form of a jobs and small business package designed to boost the small business sector, which is a major source of employment in our economy. In addition, $212 million was allocated in the budget for the youth Transition to Work program to assist young people who are disengaged from work and study and who are at risk of long-term welfare dependence to return to the workforce.

The government has developed and released white papers on agriculture and also on developing northern Australia to guide economic development and employment growth for the next decade and beyond. The future construction of roads, rail, bridges, ports, refineries, smelters, factories, water treatment plants, electricity generation and transmission infrastructure will see employment and living standards rise. It will create opportunities for the development of agriculture, aquaculture, domestic tourism, international education and health care, to name a few.

Furthermore, the government's recent free trade agreements, signed with Japan, Korea and China, will open up demand-driven markets critical for economic growth. Trade with emerging economies will also generate more demand for professional services in areas such as architecture and design, engineering, construction, project management, quantity surveying, legal services, contract administration, transport and logistics. Overall, these strategic free trade agreements will also be positive for Australian mining exports, energy exports—in the form of coal and liquefied natural gas—agricultural exports, agribusiness and food manufacturing. The government is currently engaged in six other free-trade negotiations. Those are: two bilateral free-trade negotiations, with India and Indonesia; four multilateral free-trade negotiations in the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the Australia-Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Agreement, the Pacific trade and economic agreement, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

The coalition has delivered an infrastructure budget which allocates a record $50 billion in funding over seven years to deliver vital infrastructure across Australia. In my home state of Western Australia, $4.7 billion in funding has been earmarked for major road projects. The Perth Airport Gateway has received $675 million. The project is designed to ease congestion, facilitate tourism development and facilitate commuting by the fly-in fly out workforce. The project is expected to be completed in early 2017. Near my electorate of Moore, $615 million has been allocated to the Swan Valley Bypass. It represents a new 40-kilometre highway from the Reid Highway and Tonkin Highway intersection in Malaga to the Great Northern Highway at Muchea. An investment of $866 million in the Perth Freight Link will provide improved capacity for heavy vehicle freight movements to and from the port of Fremantle. Funding of $307.8 million has been allocated towards the Great Northern Highway from Muchea to Wubin, with a further $174 million towards the North West Coastal Highway from Minilya to Barradale. In my electorate, the Mitchell Freeway extension from Burns Beach Road to Hester Avenue has received federal funding of $209 million.

The measures I have outlined indicate that the Abbott government has a comprehensive strategic plan to build the Australian economy, create jobs and invest in nation-building infrastructure.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the debate has concluded.