Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure. Will the minister outline to the House why it is important to have a balanced and disciplined economic plan and how this allows for investment in critical urban infrastructure projects? Is the minister aware of the consequences of alternative economic policy to this critical infrastructure?

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lindsay for her question and for her outstanding advocacy for Western Sydney, and particularly her advocacy for more congestion-busting infrastructure in that fast-growing part of Australia.

A balanced and disciplined economic plan is critical to being able to invest in vital infrastructure, because without a strong economy we simply don't have the resources to build the infrastructure that our nation needs. We've introduced a $100 billion pipeline of infrastructure. This year alone—as members opposite refuse to even acknowledge—we're spending almost $10 billion on infrastructure around this country. That is, in fact, more than double the amount that was spent in Labor's last year in office, only six years ago.

This means that hundreds of projects are under construction right now, right across this great country, including in our big capital cities—things like the M1 up in Brisbane, WestConnex in Sydney, the Monash in Melbourne, the North-South Corridor in Adelaide, the METRONET over in Perth, and the Bridgewater Bridge, which will soon be under construction in Tasmania. This largest infrastructure pipeline in Australian history has been acknowledged, even by respected organisations—Macromonitor say that as a result of our plan we are now in the biggest-ever transport boom in the history of Australia. And we can only do this because we have a strong economy.

I'm asked about alternatives. As you know, Mr Speaker, the Labor Party maintains their policy of $387 billion of new taxes on the economy—that's taxes on investments, that's taxes on small businesses, that's taxes on property, that's taxes on your savings—and all this would do would be to take a wrecking ball to the overall economy. And if you have a wrecking ball in the economy, it means you have less money to be able to invest in infrastructure.

We have a 10-year pipeline of infrastructure projects. But if the Labor Party got into government and wrecked the economy, which projects would it be putting in jeopardy because it wouldn't have the finances to be able to pay for them? It would indeed put in jeopardy the Greater Western Sydney Airport project, which the member for Lindsay has so strongly supported. Would it put in jeopardy some of the other great projects—the Inland Rail project, or other projects? The fact of the matter is: if you don't have the money, because you can't manage the economy, then you can't build the infrastructure that we need.