Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Will the minister advise the House on how the government's $50 billion infrastructure program is providing jobs and growth across the country? Are there any obstacles to delivering this?

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

Anyone following question time over recent weeks or, for that matter, since the coalition came to government would know that there is one side of this House that concentrates on jobs, on creating jobs and on building a stronger economy. The other side is more interested in covering up corrupt behaviour by union bosses while we get on with the business of building a stronger economy. In Western Australia, the honourable member's home state, we have implemented a number of projects and we have construction jobs underway that are making a real difference to the Western Australian economy. Our Perth Freight Link will support 2,400 jobs.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

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

The member for Perth will leave under 94(a).

The member for Perth then left the chamber.

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

For the Gateway Western Australia project in Perth, there are another 1,300 jobs that are working on that particular project. We have committed $1.2 billion to the NorthLink project in Western Australia; the Great Northern Highway, $390 million; the North West Coastal Highway, another $220 million. These are all job-creating projects that will deliver important infrastructure for Western Australia for future generations.

The honourable member asked me, 'Are there any obstacles to this job creation?' Well, there is an obstacle, and that is Labor. There is an obstacle—that is, Labor. We have already heard today that when Labor were last in government, 200,000 jobs were lost. Many of those jobs were lost because Labor introduced a carbon tax and introduced a mining tax. You might have thought—when they looked across at what has been achieved under this government, with 340,000 jobs created after the abolition of the carbon tax and the mining tax—that they would have learnt a lesson. You would have thought that they would have learnt a lesson, but they have not. They have not. They are promising to bring back the carbon tax—a bigger carbon tax than ever with more jobs lost than ever! More jobs will be lost because of Labor's plan to bring back a carbon tax. They are going to bring back the mining tax as well. How will that help the economy of Western Australia? A failed tax, but they are going to bring it back bigger and worse than ever, destroying more jobs in the Australian economy.

So it is not bad enough that they are giving their tacit support to the Green tactics of legal exhaustion and legal sabotage of new mining projects—and probably the next one of those will be in a state like Western Australia; they are actively proposing policies that will destroy jobs and will continue their appalling record in employment, which they had when last in government.