Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the role of Government leadership in ensuring the productivity and liveability of Australian cities; and

(2) notes:

(a) the importance of public transport infrastructure in shaping cities and regions;

(b) the record funding commitments for urban public transport infrastructure made under the previous Labor government, including $3.2 billion for the Regional Rail Link project and a further $3 billion committed to the Melbourne Metro rail project (Metro Tunnel);

(c) the recent Infrastructure Australia report Future Cities: Planning for our growing population, which highlights the need for Australian governments to increase investment in public transport in areas experiencing rapid population growth, including in Melbourne's west;

(d) that if an appropriate route is selected, the construction of an airport rail link to Melbourne Airport through Melbourne's west has the potential to create social and economic benefits across the region; and

(e) that further public transport infrastructure projects for fast growing regions like Melbourne's west will be needed in the near future to meet the challenge of population growth.

Australia's major cities are now the engines of the Australian economy. Australia's five largest cities contribute two-thirds of Australia's GDP and, given this, ensuring that our cities remaining productive, livable and free from structural disadvantage should be a core policy priority for all levels of government in this nation. The enormous population growth that has been experienced by our cities in recent decades and its projected continuation into the future raise major challenges for governments in the regard.

Melbourne's west, in my electorate, is on the front line of this challenge. Melbourne's west is booming. Its population is growing at twice the state average. Between the last two censuses we welcomed more than a grand final crowd at the MCG's worth of people to our community. Now, nearly, one-in-five Melburnians call Melbourne's west home. If Melbourne's west continues to grow at this rate, its population will double in just under 20 years. Anyone who lives in Melbourne's west who catches the Sunbury, Williamstown or Werribee lines into the city or who drives a car over the West Gate Bridge to get to work knows that our transport networks are straining under this growth. Traffic congestion could cost our economy up to $20 billion a year in lost time by 2020 if not addressed.

In this high-growth era, the transport infrastructure decisions that governments make or do not make now will shape our cities for decades. The record investments of federal and state Labor governments in public transport in Melbourne's west show this. The previous federal Labor government committed more funding for urban public transport infrastructure than every other government back to Federation combined. These investments shaped our region. The $3.225 billion invested in the Regional Rail Link project separated regional trains from urban commuter trains and increased capacity on urban commuter routes by laying 90 kilometres of new track. New train stations were added by this project to connect new residential communities in Wyndham Vale and Tarneit. We also committed $3 billion for the Melbourne metro rail tunnel, increasing capacity on the Sunbury line by 60 per cent and connecting Melbourne's west to the rail, health, higher education and employment hub at Parkville for the first time.

Investments of this kind stopped in 2013. The Abbott government was open about its contempt for urban public transport infrastructure, going so far as to withdraw the Commonwealth funding for the Melbourne metro rail tunnel that Labor had committed. The Turnbull government is less transparent about its actions and its intents. The Melbourne metro rail link is a case in point. As the state government was already well advanced in planning for the Melbourne airport rail link, the Prime Minister clearly thought that this project might offer him a political fig leaf for his neglect of Victoria on infrastructure investment. I was intrigued by the PM's interest. The Sunshine-Albion corridor route, long investigated by state governments, has the potential to follow the city-shaping legacy of the regional rail link and the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel for my electorate. Melbourne airport has 35 million passengers a year and that is forecast to grow to 60 million passengers by 2033. A Melbourne airport rail link that connects the city to Sunshine and then uses the Albion rail corridor to the airport would allow this area to become a major hub to connect the city and the regional train networks, becoming a major new hub for travellers from Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. Sunshine is an ideal location for a health and education services hub that could bring jobs closer to where people live in Melbourne's west, easing the strain on our transport network and commuters.

When the budget was released, however, the Prime Minister's $5 billion wasn't there. He wants to fund this project off-budget, meaning that our investment banker Prime Minister is expecting to make a financial return for the Commonwealth on this investment. This risks putting competing priorities, like securing private sector contributions, or so-called 'value capture arrangements', above the city-shaping potential of this infrastructure for Melbourne's west. It risks this Prime Minister putting the commercial interests of property developers circling the Maribyrnong defence site above those of regional Victorians wanting fast train connections to the CBD and above those of the residents of Melbourne's west who need an employment and services cluster in their community that would create jobs in their community, not the CBD, easing the transport commuter pressure running through our community.

We need a Prime Minister with the right priorities on urban public transport infrastructure, a Prime Minister whose first priority is everyday Australians trying to get to work, trying to get to school, trying to get to the shops or where they need to go. We need a Prime Minister who will fight for jobs in regional areas in Australia and in the outer suburbs of our CBDs, not the top end of town. We don't need a Prime Minister who's trying to make a deal with the big end of town at the cost of these people. The decision about the route for the Melbourne airport rail link is a decision that will shape Melbourne for decades to come. Given the population growth we're experiencing in Melbourne and Melbourne's west, it is crucial that we get this decision right, and to get it right we need a government with the right priorities.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Damian Drum (Murray, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill gives me a great opportunity to speak in relation to infrastructure, certainly in Victoria, but also to the lack of spending on infrastructure in regional Victoria. This bill, this motion, has been worded so heavily towards western Melbourne. It goes to show, again, where everybody's thoughts are in relation to trying to appease the congestion associated with two of our biggest cities in Australia—having 40 per cent of this nation's population existing in Sydney and Melbourne and thinking that the answer to this congestion is to spend more money in the cities, put more lanes on the freeways and put more rail services in place as opposed to investing in the regions as a potential option for population growth.

The previous member spoke about the regional rail project in Victoria. It was a good project, but he forgot to mention that it was built by the coalition government. I know because I was in the coalition government that built it. Don't let the facts get in the way here! The fact is that we were the ones who put six different companies in charge of that project. We built the new rail systems—new rail lines at Wyndham and Tarneit. We built them. I was in the government that built them. So the conversation has to be: 'When that project was first designed by Labor, why did they just put it in the Labor based seats of Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong?' It was a project of $3.5 billion. Why would you exclude northern Victoria? Why would you exclude the Shepparton line? Why would you exclude the Latrobe Valley line? Why would you exclude Wangaratta and Wodonga?

Why would you make those lines continue, every time they hit Melbourne, to have to work their way through the metropolitan sprawl? We all understand what that means: it slows down the lines by about an additional half an hour every time.

These are simply the facts that we have now. We have a two-tier system in Victoria because the Labor Party has put direct lines from Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong straight through to Southern Cross but, if you happen to be coming in from the Latrobe Valley, you'll get stuck behind the metropolitan system. If you're coming in from the north, you'll get stuck behind the metropolitan system. That's simply the way it is.

So we see a huge difference now between the Labor Party and the coalition looking for the answers to livability of our states. Certainly, as our major capital cities of Melbourne and Sydney continue to grow, we have to look elsewhere to try to find the answers for this growth. It's very difficult trying to partner with the Victorian state Labor government at the moment when you consider that they've been in government for 15 of the last 19 years. They own the congestion problems of Melbourne. They own the lack of rail services to most parts of northern Victoria. They own that because they've been in government for 15 of the last 19 years. As we have noticed, we have now announced $5 billion to put the airport rail link in place. I understand that this can, in fact, be done for about that amount of money. Again, we have a Victorian Labor Party, who are on the go-slow with that project.

We have here the member for Gellibrand, who has put this bill forward, suggesting that somehow or other they spent and committed more money when they were in government than is currently being spent. The fact is that from 2007-08 to 2012-13, under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd six years, they spent just over $6 billion per annum in total infrastructure spend. Under this government, from 2013-14 to 2021-22, the average infrastructure spend will be over $8 billion. Since 2012-13, the Australian government has provided $24.7 billion in grants to state governments to support major infrastructure. So, every way you look at it, this government has invested in infrastructure. We need it to be done in an equitable fashion, and we need to look after regional Victoria.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Murray and remind him it's a motion, not a bill, that's before the House.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Gellibrand and thank him for bringing on this important issue. I'd just note, after listening to the member for Murray, that there was a little bit of confusion there about infrastructure spending. The first point would be that he certainly was in a state government while the Regional Rail Link was being built, but he forgot to mention that they failed to order the trains, which set back the Regional Rail Link's opening for six months, if I remember correctly. I know that when I got here we were expecting that Regional Rail Link to be opened, and of course it was set back for six months because they failed to deliver the trains.

The member for Murray is also confused about something else: he wants to talk about the national spend from this government on infrastructure, and of course this motion is specifically about the fact that that national spend on infrastructure has sorely missed the very important state of Victoria. We're talking today about the fact that we are in an absolutely critical moment in time around Melbourne's population—around the population of Melbourne's west and around the long-term, dramatic and sustained growth that we've seen in the city of Melbourne, not least in the electorate of Lalor, which encompasses the city of Wyndham, which of course has seen extraordinary growth. This federal budget has again neglected Melbourne and the outer western suburbs on infrastructure investment.

Unlike this government, Labor understands the importance of investment in transport and infrastructure, and our record at both federal and state level reflects this. Under the previous federal Labor government, of course, $3.2 billion was invested in the Regional Rail Link, $3 billion was committed to the Melbourne metro tunnel, and the Princes Highway and East West were funded. However, since this Liberal federal government came to office, a mere 9.7 per cent of the federal infrastructure budget has been allocated to Victoria, even though Victoria comprises 25 per cent of the nation's population.

This lack of investment by the current government is having real effects in my community, which is experiencing population increases of an additional 12,000 residents per year. In Wyndham, we are in desperate need of rail funding. Passenger numbers on the Wyndham line alone are at an 11-year high. Thirteen of the 60 weekday morning train services on the Geelong line to Melbourne's CBD—that is, the regional rail link—reach maximum capacity by the time they reach the Wyndham stations. This congestion is only going to increase. Forward projections demonstrate that Wyndham's population will increase by 74 per cent to reach 435,000 residents by 2036, an increase of 185,000 people in 18 years.

People are using public transport. The regional rail link, funded by the Gillard government, demonstrates the power of investment in this space. With the regional rail link open, the Tarneit station is now the second busiest station to the Southern Cross station on V/Line. We have shown that the people moving into our communities will use public transport when and where it is provided. That is a critical point.

The recent Infrastructure Australia report Future Cities: Planning for our Growing Population demonstrates that we need to be looking holistically at where people live, where jobs are located and the transport networks which connect them. That is why the $5 billion commitment the Prime Minister suggested he was making to Victoria—although we saw in the budget that only $255 million was committed for the next four years—is really critical. The Prime Minister came to Victoria and announced that he was going to partner with the state government to do a $5.1 billion spend on a rail link between the airport and the city. That link needs to go to Sunshine. It needs to go to Sunshine to fit with Victoria's plans for the future. It needs to go to Sunshine so that it links with the regional rail link and opens up the possibility for a 20-minute train trip in the future. It is imperative that it does.

This Prime Minister likes to travel on the regional rail link when he goes down to Geelong to see the member for Corangamite. I would suggest to him that, next time he wants a photo op in Corangamite, he opens his eyes out the window as he travels and sees Melbourne's west growing—because between one month and the next there are thousands of people moving into our area and they need public transport. There are people moving to Ballarat and Bendigo and they need access to the city by public transport as well. There are people moving to Geelong. The whole of the west of Victoria is growing at a rapid rate, and this Prime Minister needs to get serious about supporting infrastructure for us.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am grateful to the member for Gellibrand for his motion and for giving us the opportunity to talk about the innovative leadership and unprecedented investment the Turnbull government is making in our urban infrastructure. The member for Gellibrand's motion rightly points out that the government has a leadership role to play in ensuring the productivity and livability of Australian cities. He is absolutely right. That's why this government introduced the concept of City Deals to this country and it is why it is rigorously pursuing them from Tasmania to Townsville. These deals are already making a difference to cities all over Australia and their impact will only grow as more come online.

The member for Gellibrand also draws attention to what he calls record funding commitments made by the previous Labor government. But the difference between the Turnbull government's record $75 billion infrastructure investment and the record commitments he refers to is that we can pay for ours. The Turnbull government's investment is fully funded as part of a responsible budget with a robust path back to surplus. The previous Labor government made a lot of so-called record funding commitments. But they also left a lot of record budget black holes. It is hard to imagine how Labor would have paid for public transport infrastructure in Victoria, or anywhere else, when it was short of $57 billion to pay for the NDIS. Sadly, on the evidence of the shadow Treasurer's budget reply, they are still at it. The simple truth is that you can't trust any funding commitment made by this shifty Leader of the Opposition and his Labor colleagues. You couldn't trust their fantasy double accounting then and you can't trust it now.

On the Sunshine Coast we have recently seen what the Turnbull government's genuine leadership on public transport infrastructure can achieve. The Sunshine Coast is a rapidly growing and dynamic region, with more than 200,000 people set to join us in the decades to come. However, when it comes to intercity public transport, we currently rely on a single-track rail line capable of supporting trains travelling at less than 60 kilometres an hour and situated many kilometres inland from our major population centres. Faster and more reliable rail transport between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane would get more freight trucks and cars off our roads, free up capacity, improve safety on the Bruce Highway and give thousands of commuters more time with their families. In short, it would get commuters home more safely and sooner. That's why it has been one of my top priorities since before my election as the member for Fisher.

The 2018 federal budget included a new commitment of $390 million to duplicate the existing railway line between Beerburrum and Landsborough and to make further improvements up to Nambour. We've been calling for this duplication on the Sunshine Coast for decades. It is long overdue. When completed, it will allow for more regular trains for both passengers and freight and for a far more reliable service. However, the Turnbull government has gone far beyond simply delivering on the infrastructure we need now. The government has shown the leadership the member for Gellibrand looks for in vain from his own party and is planning for the future. In March, we announced that the North Coast Connect high-speed rail project was one of only three in the country selected by the government to receive millions of dollars in federal funding for a detailed business case. By upgrading the existing rail for high-speed trains and building a new line from Beerwah up the coast through Caloundra to Maroochydore, this project would offer travel times of as low as 45 minutes from our region to Brisbane.

The business case is expected to take a little more than a year to produce, and when it is published the project will become a prime candidate for funding under the Turnbull government's $10 billion National Rail Program. While we await publication of the business case, I'll be working hard with my friend the member for Fairfax and all my LNP team Queensland colleagues to lay the groundwork to ensure this project is a priority for federal and state government funding. With city deals being agreed all over the country and with a fully funded and unmatched investment of $75 billion in infrastructure nationwide, truly, no government could be said to have achieved greater leadership in promoting the productivity and livability of cities than the Turnbull government.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll start by thanking the member for Gellibrand for putting this motion before the House. It gives an opportunity to a number of members of the House to talk about the critical issue of infrastructure, particularly in Melbourne's south-west and through to Geelong. The livability of Geelong is increasingly becoming one of the most important economic pillars of our region. Our north-facing bay, our raised peninsula and our proximity to the Surf Coast, all within a manageable distance of the Melbourne CBD, make Geelong a fantastic place to live. Thousands of people who currently live in Melbourne are making the decision to live in Geelong while still pursuing their employment in the greater Port Phillip Bay area. But, to make that proposition work, the link—the rail link and the transport links—between Geelong and Melbourne must be first-rate.

I was very pleased to be a part of the former Rudd-Gillard government which put in place the Regional Rail Link, and we were joined earlier by the member for Grayndler, who championed that. It was a $3.2 billion infrastructure development which preceded rather than followed urban development. In terms of the link between Geelong and Melbourne, it has been a game changer that has seen much greater frequency of travel and trains on that route.

In the last few weeks the Andrews state Labor government has put forward $50 million to look at the development of a fast rail link between Geelong and Melbourne. This would be utilising trains which would travel between 250 and 300 kilometres an hour. That would be transformative. It would see a trip from Geelong to Melbourne being done in under 40 minutes—faster, it turns out, than a helicopter. This would be a great moment in the history of Geelong's relationship with Melbourne, and it would be a critical boost to our economic growth.

Last month was a significant moment in the Turnbull government's governing of our nation. In announcing a $5 billion commitment—albeit off the books—to a rail link between the city and Tullamarine, it appeared that for the first time they had discovered that there was human habitation south of the Murray. Up until that point in time, the Turnbull government had committed just nine per cent of Australia's infrastructure funding to the state of Victoria, which was an absolute disgrace.

What is now being proposed is four options for a rail link between the city of Melbourne and Tullamarine. The decision that is made in respect of which of those routes is taken is absolutely critical. There is the very expensive tunnel route, which seems to be preferred by the government, based, it would appear, in part on their desire to have this funding off the budget, meaning they imagine there will be a revenue stream associated with this infrastructure build which will be worth more than the infrastructure build itself. It would seem that profits are driving this decision rather than community infrastructure.

The alternative is the route through Sunshine. The route through Sunshine is a cheaper route but will connect the link between the city and Tullamarine with the existing rail links that are being developed around Victoria, including the Regional Rail Link from Geelong to Melbourne and what in the future would be the fast rail link between Geelong and Melbourne. In other words, if we are to see a fast rail link between Geelong and Melbourne, the Sunshine route must be chosen as the preferred option for the development of the rail link between the city and Tullamarine airport. It will also then enable a much faster link between Geelong and Tullamarine.

There is a clear choice in terms of what is best for Geelong in those routes. The state government have made that choice very clear. They are saying their preferred option is the Sunshine route. Right now, we actually need to see a decision made and a preference expressed by this government. The member for Corangamite, who has just joined us, is a key player in that, as she represents, as a member of the government in this place, the interests of Geelong within the government. It is absolutely critical for the member for Corangamite to make it completely clear that she supports the Sunshine route as distinct from any of the other routes that are possible, because if the member for Corangamite does not make that clear then she will have sold Geelong out, and it's absolutely essential that the Turnbull government make that clear in this build.

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to stand and speak about this motion today, the threshold theme of which I don't disagree with: the importance of ensuring we have productive and livable cities in Australia. I think both sides of the House certainly share that broader vision. It is extraordinary when you think about how quickly Australia's population is growing and how quickly Australia is ageing. When I first read this motion, it made me think of that Peter Allen song from about 1980, I Still Call Australia Home and those lines—and I'm sure I'll misquote them:

I've been to cities that never close down

From New York to Rio and old London town.

To think that the likes of London at the stage when Peter Allen wrote that song were barely larger than Sydney is today, with over five million people! Australia indeed is growing quickly, with large cities.

Where this motion falls down drastically, though, is the typical politicisation and a baseless argument when it comes to fact, suggesting that the Labor Party actually has a good track record on infrastructure. If you look at the spend, you see that through the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era there was an average of $6 billion a year spent on infrastructure. The coalition government has spent $7.6 billion a year on infrastructure. I understand that those opposite aren't very good at economics. I get that, and I want to cut them some slack, but $7.6 billion is, in fact, more money than $6 billion. There is $1.6 billion more, on average, spent on infrastructure. What is extraordinary about this is I'm comparing this to a Labor era of an absolute spendathon. It was an era where they overreached with their stimulus post-GFC and still they underspent on critical infrastructure for our cities.

In contrast, look at what this government has done and also what it forecasts to do. It has a $75 billion infrastructure plan for the years ahead. This motion was based on Victoria, where $7.8 billion of major projects for Victoria were announced in this year's budget. If you go up towards Queensland, my home state, and you look at the region for the Sunshine Coast, we scored big time in this budget with a trifecta of $800 million for section D on the Bruce Highway, $880 million between Pine Rivers and the Sunshine Coast on the Bruce Highway, and, of course, that beautiful $390 million for the North Coast line for upgrades between Beerburrum and Nambour. That's $2 billion just for the broader region of the Sunshine Coast because the coalition government understands the importance of investing.

There is another point here, and you can see it through the motion. When it comes to ensuring that our cities have the vital infrastructure they need, it isn't just about 'show us the money'. Even though, yes, we have spent more and invested more than Labor, this motion is just another example of a long wish list—show us the money, the money, the money, the money. Such is the complexity around managing the growth of our population, amidst a time when we have a knowledge based economy that is integrated with the global economy, that we can't just throw money at it. That is why we have crafted a Smart Cities Plan. It is one plan that ensures that we have smart investment, smart policy and smart technology. Smart investment prioritises projects, takes long-term investments that also take into account value capture and leverages the strength of the federal balance sheet. Smart policies ensure we have not just three tiers of government working in concert in our major cities—whether they be metro or regional—but also three sectors, being business, government and community. It is through this smart approach that we can continue to be ahead of the curve and invest in infrastructure to ensure population growth does not overtake it.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion put forward by the member for Gellibrand, and I commend him for bringing this motion forward in this place. The motion before us seeks to do two things. It acknowledges the key role of government in ensuring the productivity and liveability not just of our cities but of our regions as well. It notes the need for further investment in rail infrastructure in Melbourne's west, particularly as the proposed airport rail link holds great potential to improve the quality of life for many in the west of Melbourne but also in our regions.

We've heard from the member for Corio about the impact on Geelong. I want to talk about the impact on my electorate of Ballarat. It's really important that our regions aren't forgotten when it comes to infrastructure funding. That's particularly vital as the Victorian and federal governments start work towards the Melbourne airport railway link. Like regional centres all around Australia, residents of Ballarat rely on our transport links with major cities so that we can travel for work, for play and for study. It's these strong transport connections that make our regional centres such a terrific place to live. It is regions like Ballarat where you can enjoy the peace and pace of a regional lifestyle while still enjoying fantastic schools and health services and living a comfortable distance from Melbourne, if you are able to find work there as well. However, if we're able to continue to reduce the commuting distance between cities like mine—that is, Ballarat—we need to keep ahead of the growth. When you consider growth in Melbourne's west in particular, which has been highlighted in the recent infrastructure Australia report Future Cities: planning for our growing population, we see that we are beginning to run out of time.

Projects such as the Regional Rail Link have shown what a committed government can do for regional Australians. The previous Labor government put $3.2 billion into this project, helping untangle the regional trains as they came into Melbourne. Projects like this meant that we could rely on the trains to get us to work and home and improve the commute.

Regional Victorians do need more projects like this. There is an opportunity with the Melbourne Airport link to do more than just connect the CBD to the airport. Through proper planning we can connect the city with the airport, but we can also connect Ballarat and our other regional centres with the airport as well and we can better connect Ballarat with the CBD.

An alignment through Sunshine is certainly my preferred route. It's the preferred route of the Victorian government and, I think, pretty clearly anyone listening to this message will hear it's the preferred route of all of the Labor MPs here who represent those areas. The alignment through Sunshine will allow the new tracks to take strain off the existing western suburbs train network, already struggling to meet demand, and this will result in a superior service for residents in and through Melbourne's west and for those further beyond along the Ballarat line who come through that way. Commuters boarding trains in Wendouree, Ballarat, Ballan, Bacchus Marsh and, hopefully, eventually a new station at Warrenheip, will be able to reach their workplaces in Melbourne with far greater ease. Similarly, residents from the regions will also be able to change at Sunshine for airport services, better linking these towns with the nation's wider economy. That's a route in itself. Mostly now people have to either drive or catch the terrific shuttle bus service, but it takes between two and 2½ hours just to get to the airport, where a train service would be a much shorter and much easier commute for people to get out to the airport. The traffic congestion around Melbourne Airport is increasingly difficult for many of us to navigate, let alone the cost of long-term parking of cars at Melbourne airport. A train service would be hugely beneficial to the economy of my region.

It's not often that such a possibility arises from a single rail project, and, when it does, government needs to act to make the most of it. Sadly, unfortunately, this government, despite what it has said in many press releases, has not actually acted. In the days before the budget the government told the Victorian media it would invest $5 billion in the rail line to the airport, and the first the Victorian state government heard about it was through a letter from the Prime Minister's office that had arrived only after the plan had already been released to the media, so it didn't actually talk to the Victorian government about the preferred route. But what the budget papers clearly show is that this looks like it's going to be an equity contribution, which, frankly, is not going to stack up with this project. We know that public transport projects don't usually make money. Neither the cost of the construction nor the capital investment can be covered by operating revenue, and, frankly, I think the way in which the government has gone about putting this so-called project together has been selling the Victorian people short.

I want to reiterate my support for the Sunshine connection to the airport link, but we do actually need to see the money for this project.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I first saw this motion on the Notice Paper, I thought it might be that the Labor Party was coming in here to apologise for all their failures in infrastructure throughout Australia. After all, what the Labor Party could tell us about infrastructure the Babylonians could tell us about proper treatment of the Cretans. I come from a part of Sydney that has three out of the 10 most congested roads in Australia and the state Labor opposition has decided even before the project has begun that they will cancel the first piece of proper road infrastructure in my part of the area before it has even started. What do Luke Foley and the New South Wales Labor opposition have to say about the road tunnel Beaches Link? They call it a vanity project because that's what they think about infrastructure in New South Wales. They're so sick and tired of cancelling their own projects that they've started cancelling our projects instead.

This is a party that is wedded to cancellations. When you think about the previous state government in New South Wales, all you can think of is a history of incompetence, ineptitude and cancellations of infrastructure from one end of the state to the other. The one piece of infrastructure that they deigned to build was the Macquarie Park railway, which was a contract signed by the previous Fahey government. But they couldn't leave that alone; they decided to halve the length and double the cost of it. I mean, this is a party that cannot deliver on anything. The New South Wales Labor Party under Bob Carr, Morris Iemma, Kristina Keneally and, of course, Nathan Rees—let's not forget him—announced 28 infrastructure projects, but cancelled 32. In fact, they were so keen to cancel projects that sometimes they didn't have time to actually announce them.

What was Bob Carr's answer to all of this? 'Sydney's full. Everyone leave Sydney, because we can't be bothered actually building, much less funding, an infrastructure project in Sydney.' They cannot bring themselves to actually make the lives of people in cities better off. But there are some pieces of infrastructure that they'll build. They were very keen on starting coalmines in New South Wales as long as you happened to be a member of the New South Wales cabinet or a friend of someone in the New South Wales cabinet. This is the state branch that spawned Bob Carr, Mark Latham, Ian Macdonald, Joe Tripodi, Eddie Obeid, yet they have the gall to come in here and lecture Australia about how they need better infrastructure.

Compare that to the New South Wales state government at the moment. It's delivering $77 billion worth of state transport infrastructure, and has plans to deliver another $111 billion over the next four years. This includes Sydney Metro Northwest, which will be extended underneath the harbour all the way to Bankstown, which will move 45,000 people an hour on driverless, state-of-the-art trains run by the same company that runs the train system in Hong Kong, compared to what Sydney Trains currently does, which is 25,000 people an hour. They're building NorthConnex, a piece of infrastructure that was first planned for Sydney in the 1950s. They're building WestConnex, another piece of infrastructure that was first planned in the 1950s, but never, not once, did the state Labor Party in New South Wales get anywhere close to doing it. Beaches Link—which is now being planned for the Northern Beaches to alleviate the pain and suffering of tens of thousands of families on the Northern Beaches, families that Luke Foley and the New South Wales Labor Party don't care about—was initially planned in the 1950s, and what did Labor do? I'll tell what they did. Neville Wran sold off the road corridors so that it couldn't be built, and now it has to go underground.

When you think at a national level about what Labor delivered in terms of transport infrastructure, you think of pink batts and school halls. A lot of good that did to alleviate the suffering of people who could not get home to see their families and who could not get to work on time and the stress and anxiety that the congestion in our major cities is causing. And what's Mark Latham's answer? Mark Latham says we should tell foreigners to go away. He has no answer in terms of how to alleviate the problem of people who are actually living in our cities right now. The New South Wales Liberal Party is doing it and so are we at a federal level. We are investing a record $75 billion from 2019 to 2027 in air, rail and other transport infrastructure to improve the lives of all Australians. (Time expired)

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour.