Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House how the Morrison-McCormack government is providing stability and certainty by investing in critical infrastructure, including through its $100 billion infrastructure pipeline? Is the Deputy Prime Minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for her question. Five years before Federation, the Swan Hill Bridge was completed. This bridge is still operating today, although it needs repairs. When it does get those much-needed repairs, there will be interruption to traffic, and, of course, that affects the community. The Liberals and the Nationals, as part of our $100 billion nationwide infrastructure rollout over the next decade, are getting on and replacing the bridge. The local mayor, Anne Young, is absolutely delighted with what she is doing. The member for Mallee and I were there when Councillor Young described replacing the Swan Hill Bridge as 'a budget winner'. A budget winner, indeed! I'm sure the Treasurer would have been delighted to hear those words. Councillor Young also said:

The Federal Government has already invested heavily in our region, and this bridge funding is the icing on the cake …

The bridge has been a long term aspiration of our community, and this funding will help us achieve a new bridge much sooner.

Of course, she is right. There has been a lot of funding going into the member for Mallee's electorate, because she is a fighter, she is determined and she wants her community to be the best it can be.

Whether it's the member for Mallee's or any other electorate right across this country, they are all benefiting from having a budget going towards surplus. They're benefiting towards our delivery of infrastructure across this nation. We have committed funding to thousands of projects across the country, including up to 900 major projects, of which 280 are already completed and some 160 are already under construction. That's delivery. Of course, we work with the states and territories to make sure that this funding becomes a reality.

In the member for Mallee's electorate, we've committed $350 million through the Roads of Strategic Importance initiative across six projects, and we will deliver this in full. We've put funding on the table to make sure that these crucial freight enhancing projects are possible. The member for Wright knows this, because in his portfolio area he hears every day how important these regional roads are not just for road safety but also for freight supply chains. In Tasmania, we've commenced construction on the Murchison Highway corridor upgrade, with bridge strengthening along the corridor already complete. Labor would never have designed an initiative such as the Roads of Strategic Importance.

The member for Mallee asked me about the opposition to this. I'm looking at the opposition. It would never have happened under Labor, because they don't care about the regions, and less do they care about infrastructure in the regions and those important roads. Not necessarily national highways, but the byways which provide such vital linkage points— (Time expired)

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. When the Reserve Bank, the IMF, the Business Council of Australia, Ai Group, Master Builders and others have all called for action by the government to support the economy, why is the government refusing to consider a proportionate, measured and responsible stimulus program to boost the economy by bringing forward infrastructure investment?

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

The government's budget contains almost $10 billion of infrastructure in this financial year. That's moneys that are hitting right across the country. In addition to that, the tax cuts that were legislated by this government, fought against by the Labor Party, who said these shouldn't happen—in fact, the Labor Party argued at the election that we should be imposing $387 billion of higher taxes on the Australian economy. I don't know what sort of a stimulus package $387 billion of higher taxes constitutes, but that was the prescription that was offered by the shadow Treasurer when he was the shadow finance minister and he was the joint architect with the former shadow Treasurer and the former Leader of the Opposition, who said they thought at this time of great uncertainty in the global economy that adding $387 billion to the tax burden of Australians would be a good idea.

We don't share that view. We believe, and we have demonstrated in our budget, that the right way to go about addressing the issues in the global economy and, indeed, in the domestic economy is the stable and considered approach of rolling out our program of reducing the costs of doing business, whether it's on removing unnecessary regulation, ensuring that we're training people for the skills needs of the future, delivering tax relief to Australians, taking our trade barriers further out to ensure that we're dealing with more and more countries in the world and taking our trade agreements coverage from 26 per cent to 70 per cent, and we're seeking to go further. So that is the economic plan that we took to the election.

The Labor Party would have us engage in the reckless spending policies that they last implemented when the member who asked the question sat at the knee of Wayne Swan and instituted one of the most reckless spending packages, which crashed the budget and took money away from things like pharmaceuticals, defence spending and a whole range of other important priorities because the Labor Party did not know how to manage money. He refers to the Governor of the Reserve Bank, and I'm happy to quote the governor when he said, on 1 October:

the Australian economy appears to have reached a gentle turning point. The economy has been through a soft patch recently, but we are expecting a return to around trend growth over the next year. There are a number of factors that are supporting this outlook. These include the low level of interest rates, the recent tax cuts, ongoing spending on infrastructure, signs of stabilisation in some established housing markets—

So I would encourage members to reflect on those comments. (Time expired)