Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. My electorate of Wright has many vegetable growers who supply an immense amount of product both domestically and abroad. We have Moffatt farms at Aratula and Kalfresh at Kalbar, which have a long history of exporting carrots and green beans to customers in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Middle East. We also have Gibb Bros, who export to Asia, the South Pacific and New Zealand. How will our government support businesses such as these to get their products to market quickly and more efficiently?

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Wright for his question. He has been a very strong advocate in addressing future freight tasks in his electorate to take advantage of free trade agreements and also to meet our growing infrastructure needs. The member for Wright was born and raised in Queensland. He has a farming background. He worked in the agrifinance sector. But perhaps he knows the challenges and the opportunities faced by regional communities more through his own investment in a general freight business, and the fact that he has actually employed people in those businesses—employed up to 100 people. So he is well aware of the challenges facing the freight sector not just for his community but right throughout Queensland and regional Australia.

The Turnbull Joyce government is getting on with the job of delivering a $50 billion infrastructure investment program not just in our cities or through major projects through the Minister for Urban Infrastructure but also through projects on our regional highways and in our smaller country towns throughout rural and regional parts of Australia. Part of the challenge is dealing with the fact that Australia's freight task has quadrupled over the past four decades. In fact, between now and 2030, we expect to see a further growth in demand for freight in the order of 50 per cent. This increasing freight task demands more from the Australian infrastructure network and all levels of government will be required to respond to it.

That is why last week the Prime Minister, in response to Infrastructure Australia's Australian Infrastructure Plan, announced that we will be undertaking a freight and supply chain strategy. We need to provide the right investment for the private sector to invest with confidence, but we need to also make sure that we capitalise on those free trade agreements that the coalition government has been so successful in delivering for the Australian nation. So it was a key recommendation of Infrastructure Australia's report last week and we are getting on with the job of doing that work over the next 12 months.

The freight study is important because we need to make sure that we get the foundations right and that we deliver value for money for Australian taxpayers in every investment we make in the infrastructure space. The member for Wright also is a huge advocate and a strong supporter of the Melbourne Brisbane inland rail project; just like the members for Groom, the member for Maranoa, the member for Parkes—very keen supporters of the inland rail project.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

I hear the member for Grayndler interjecting. We are getting on with it. There is $894 million being committed by the Turnbull Joyce government to the Melbourne Brisbane inland rail project. We are getting on with it because we believe in the future of regional Australia and we understand the importance of helping the Australian agricultural sector get its products to market. So we are getting on with the job. There are other major freight projects the government are investing in. We are investing in the Townsville eastern access rail corridor and the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal. There is $220 million for the Murray Basin Rail Project and $1.1 billion for the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing—important freight projects. On this side of the House, we understand the importance of planning, getting the job done right, getting value for money for the Australian taxpayers. Our national freight and supply chain strategy will be an important piece of work to guide those future investment decisions.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.