Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

South-East Queensland is responsible for one fifth of Australia's economic and employment activity; and currently one in seven Australians resides there. Its population is expected to grow from 3,000,000 to over 4,000,000 by 2031 and to nearly 5,000,000 by 2041 and so it will take just one generation before one in five Australians resides in South-East Queensland. Of course, that part of Australia offers affordable housing, a high standard of living, and an idyllic climate, and all of that desirability attracts new business and residents. They come predominantly for those assets of this region.

It is very important that we talk about planning and infrastructure for that part of Australia that is growing so fast. It is inadequate to apportion infrastructure resources according to the current population. We need to be looking at the overwhelming economic and employment growth that is happening in that part of Australia, together with the projections through to 2041 and 2051. Running consecutive budget deficits and having jurisdictions in deep structural debt have taken away the opportunity for planners and governments to build infrastructure for the future or even to build infrastructure for the present. So we are in this invidious situation where we pay as we go, building just the infrastructure we can afford in the areas that are most desperate. That takes away the element of advantage in planning for the future.

The Council of Mayors from South-East Queensland are regular visitors to this place, and their only plea is that all jurisdictions work together. The stakes are no greater anywhere in Australia than in South-East Queensland. As I pointed out, for this economically significant region it is absolutely vital that we get value for money and strategic thinking for that part of Australia before it is too late. The region is referred to as the 200-kilometre city, stretching from Noosa to the border, and there are very few opportunities to get things wrong over the next generation. If we divide up the infrastructure money from the last Labor budget and the first coalition budget, it is pretty clear that South-East Queensland did not do too badly—when you throw in the Toowoomba Range Crossing, which is fundamentally infrastructure for the nation.

Connecting to Brisbane to Melbourne more efficiently is as much a public good for Melbourne as it is for Brisbane, so when I look at what is happening in Brisbane I am deeply concerned that the prime investment is the Bracken Ridge to Nudgee triple-laning of the Gateway Motorway, which has a very specific benefit but we have a far greater challenge around what is still a hub and spoke city that has failed to decentralise itself. It is still utterly reliant on its CBD and it continues, sadly, to move major infrastructure, federal and state, into its heart, including the Australian Taxation Office—right into within 50 metres of the Queen Street Mall. There is no need for federal government infrastructure to be clustered around the Queen Street Mall. There is every reason to have a multifocal city, as Sydney has attempted to do, but we are hampered by the range of Brisbane City Council and its boundaries.

The sheer reality is that this council cannot on its own make these calls. It ultimately falls to the Queensland government to direct, and Queenslanders, where they intended to or not, have elected a zero infrastructure state Labor government that will offer very little because they have nothing left to give. This is a state Labor government that simply inherited the credit rating and the budget debt that was created by the former Labor administration. We see three more years, potentially, of paralysis when tough decisions have to be made. Labor has proven itself incapable of developing substantial and effective PPPs. The one that was attempted in 2011 led to $240 million worth of schools being constructed in Brisbane, with the overall bill rising to nearly $1.1 billion—paid by Queenslanders, and they got only seven schools in return. This was a state Labor government that had run out of money. It was a state Labor government that had corroded its financial position to the point where spending an extra dollar would probably further reduce their credit rating. They had no alternative but to go to the market in the middle of the GST to do something as fundamental as build a school. When the offer came in, it was $1.1 billion to get $240 million worth of schools.

Now is the time, while we have a Queensland government almost incapable of arriving at significant deals with the Commonwealth, to ask ourselves what is the future for this part of Queensland. I commend the mayors for their courage and I call on Canberra to do everything they can to help this part of Australia.