Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. How is the government supporting investment in the critical drivers of economic growth, especially productive infrastructure? Is the government aware of any potential impediments to infrastructure investment in Australia?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hindmarsh for his question and his keen interest in these issues of infrastructure, because he knows how critical they are to the growth of the South Australian economy. A healthy and targeted infrastructure program is central to the government's plan to grow jobs and to grow the economy. This position has been recently noted by the IMF, who said that continuing to establish a pipeline of quality larger projects with transparent cost-benefit analysis is recommended. But they went further and said:

The authorities'—

that is, the Australian government's—

Asset Recycling Initiative and Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility provided scope for additional investment in high priority infrastructure projects as they are identified, while meeting the government's medium-term fiscal strategy.

This is reinforced in this year's budget, which confirmed, again, the $50 billion infrastructure investment commitment of this government. Projects like WestConnex; the continued upgrade of the Pacific Highway; the Swan Valley Bypass; the North-South Corridor, which South Australian members, and the member in particular, will be keenly interested in, and significant additional commitments there recently; the Midland Highway upgrade; the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing and, of course, the Gold Coast Light Rail, which was announced by the Prime Minister last weekend.

Despite the boasting of the member for Grayndler, who tends to boast quite a bit about these matters, I thought it would be important to remind the House and share with the House that the Commonwealth's share of investment—as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics—when we came to office in September 2013 was 5.1 per cent. That figure today, on the most recent figures, is 6.3 per cent. In addition, the Commonwealth's share of public investment has gone from 29.3 per cent under those opposite, when they left office, and it is now 35.6 per cent.

You may think differently based on the boasts of the member for Grayndler, who claims to have laid every single brick in this country over the time that they were elected. He was at every single concrete pour—so much so that I thought I should go and check on the Sydney Harbour Bridge opening design to see if his name was on it, to see if he changed his name from Bradfield to Albanese! Perhaps he constructed Stonehenge and Machu Picchu, as the minister mentioned yesterday! The member for Grayndler is the great infrastructure builder of the ancient wonders of the world!

What you have to focus on when it comes to infrastructure is that you have to afford to pay for it. You need to ensure that you have a fiscal strategy where you keep control of the recurrent expenditure so you can focus on important projects like this and so you can grow the economy—so you can grow revenue to balance the budget.