Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that the Government has failed to manage critical infrastructure within the City Deals program;

(2) notes that the Government:

  (a) will spend $4 billion more on the Western Sydney City Deal project, Sydney Metro-Western Sydney Airport;

  (b) has tried to disguise the $4 billion increase in cost as a 'fast track' when, in fact, the funding timeline and the scope from St Marys to the Western Sydney Aerotropolis via Western Sydney International has not changed;

  (c) has shifted responsibility for land acquisition to the NSW Government; and

  (d) failed to action a 2017 Infrastructure Australia report to strategically plan and acquire critical rail corridors which would have resulted in significant savings; and

(3) further notes the abject failure of this Government to:

  (a) acquire land that delivers value for money to the Australian taxpayer, as evidenced by the Leppington Triangle purchase; and

  (b) learn the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and invest in critical social infrastructure within City Deals.

The record of the Morrison government reflects the approach that its leader has taken. His focus on marketing in place of policy has led to a long series of announcements that have not been matched by delivery. Nowhere is this more clear than when it comes to infrastructure and to cities. Nowhere is this more clear than when it comes to the Western Sydney Airport and the city deal there.

In the last week we've heard a litany of dodgy deals—luxury watches for Australia Post executives, six-figure tax advice for the chair of our corporate watchdog and the Leppington Triangle purchase. There has been all of this, but no movement on a national anticorruption watchdog, even though we've learnt that the Attorney-General has had ready since last December draft legislation to establish this commission. To be fair, the Prime Minister has acted on one of these scandals. He has a zero-tolerance approach to Cartier watches. When it comes to systemic issues, he has taken a vow of silence. Spending $19,000 on accessories warrants prime ministerial intervention, but not a $30 million gift to billionaire landowners—a purchase that is the subject of the most scathing ANAO report that I have read. His deputy still calls this purchase a bargain. The Prime Minister is all about presentation and never concerned with substance. The issues here go beyond allegations of impropriety, serious as they are.

We must continue to focus on the first principles of policy-making and implementation. In Labor we know that better cities and better suburbs mean better lives for the majority of Australians. It's that simple. The people of Western Sydney deserve a better deal from this city deal. They also deserve a bigger say in how it has been structured. Labor sees City Deals as a means to bring together the three levels of government in partnership with the private sector and, critically, the community in order to achieve shared objectives. For the Morrison government it's just a ribbon to wrap around a project that they were going to do anyway.

Already we are seeing the consequences of this confused and top-down approach, such as almost doubling the cost of the Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport rail line. Back in 2015 the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments announced a joint Western Sydney rail needs scoping study. Its outcomes report recommended the protection of the land corridor and also said that value-sharing mechanisms should be in place and communicated to landowners before confirming station locations. A separate Infrastructure Australia report in 2017 said, 'Failure to appropriately protect corridors could hold substantial costs and risks for governments,' and, 'Corridor protection requires immediate action by governments'—immediate. But what has the government done to action the recommendations from these reports? Nothing.

Surely it says everything about the priorities of this government that it dresses up a $4 billion cost blow-out as a fast-track, passing over the inconvenient truth that it is no such thing because the time line and the scope of the project remain unchanged. Sadly, this is just one example of a short-term focus on political advantage, short-changing the Australian community when it comes to infrastructure.

The experience of the pandemic has shown us much about how our cities work and our future infrastructure needs, but the Morrison government has not been paying attention. Opportunities to invest in social infrastructure have been missed. We have a Deputy Prime Minister who is still defending the indefensible over the Leppington Triangle and a minister for cities who rivals his Prime Minister with his announcement mania. This lack of focus is holding us back and selling us short in Western Sydney and right around the nation.

Elsewhere in the world, national governments have been supporting bold thinking, reshaping cities for COVID normal and for our post-COVID lives. That we haven't is little short of a grace. Big changes in how we work, how we consume, how we get about and how we live our lives have to be factored into policy-making to build resilience and to shape our recovery towards the future that we want to see. Of course, it's much too early to speak with confidence about what behavioural changes will endure, but we must recognise the changes that have taken place to seize the opportunities they present and to manage the risks.

Something else has happened during the pandemic. For the first time in a very long time trust in politics has increased. We can't afford to let this dissipate, so let's get moving on that national integrity commission. Let's get to the bottom of what has happened with the Leppington Triangle purchase and all the other questionable dealings and examples of poor governance connected to this project and other decisions of the Morrison government. Also let's bring the people of Western Sydney closer to these decisions about their community and their future.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I like the member for Scullin but, for somebody who has presented this motion, or served this motion up, his enthusiasm for his actual motion was somewhat lacking. I thought he would be a bit more forthright and enthusiastic. On this side of the chamber, we actually have reason to be optimistic and enthusiastic, because this government on this side of the House, the Morrison government, that has actually delivered on City Deals. This government actually initiated the concept of City Deals some three years ago. It has become a very successful process—three levels of government cooperating and collaborating to agree to long-term plans focused around three key areas of housing, infrastructure and jobs. As a result of that, we have seen City Deals leverage some $16.8 billion in commitments, including some $8 billion from the Australian government through this partnership approach with state, territory and local governments. Across eight City Deals there are 160 projects, which we have jointly invested in with state governments, local councils and private partners, creating nearly 221,000 jobs in their life time. So we do have the runs on the board and we do have the track record to be enthusiastic about this and show that we are committed to this.

This also gives me the opportunity to speak about some of the terrific things this government is doing in the latest budget in the infrastructure space. There is a record 10-year infrastructure spend. It was a $100 billion but now, as a result of the recent budget, it is $110 billion, and City Deals continue to be delivered across the nation as part of that. In fact, it was the coalition government that—with these jobs we see the opportunities to put boots on the ground and create job opportunities across the country.

The member for Scullin in his motion raised the 2017 Infrastructure Australia report. I can report to the House that one of the priority projects in that report was the M1-M3 gateway merge. I am pleased to tell the House that that project has been completed on schedule—actually ahead of schedule—and we are now onto the next stage of the M1 upgrades from Springwood to the gateway northbound. Not only that, we also have completed the Mudgeeraba and Varsity Lakes upgrade on the Gold Coast to the M1 and we are now working on the Varsity Lakes to Tallebudgera section of the M1 upgrades.

We have also committed as a government, as part of our long-term funding commitment to infrastructure, $500 million to upgrade the M1 from Daisy Hill to the Logan Motorway, the final stretch of the M1 upgrade projects in my part of the world. In addition to that, we have committed funding to the Salisbury-Beaudesert rail study, to look at a passenger rail solution for the Salisbury-Beaudesert rail corridor, which is increasingly needed as a result of the development that is going on in the south-west of the city of Logan. All of these things have been enabled by this federal government.

In contrast, let's look at what the state Labor government have done in that period. They have done nothing. The Palaszczuk government has spent on average a tiny 3.6 per cent of its annual revenue on infrastructure, compared to 8.1 per cent in New South Wales and 7.6 per cent in Victoria. It is this Morrison federal government that has done the heavy lifting when it comes to delivering infrastructure for Queensland over the past five years, doubling our contribution made to other states and territories. In fact, our share of the funding split for Queensland state infrastructure was 40 per cent. The Morrison government has invested 40 per cent of the infrastructure spend in Queensland, compared to 21 per cent in other states and territories. I've seen this firsthand with trying to get the state Labor government to the table on projects. They have found every single excuse to delay projects until the eve of a state election, and they then magically roll them out.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nothing could tell you more or speak louder about the contempt of this government for Western Sydney than when, on a motion about Western Sydney, we have Queensland talk one, Queensland talk two, Queensland talk three. Where is the member for Lindsay, a Western Sydney Liberal MP? She is not here. They have to get all the Queensland contingent to speak about Western Sydney, because they've got no clue about Western Sydney. When they announced the Western Sydney City Deal, they announced it in Redfern, 38 kilometres away from Western Sydney. Now they have to have people from Queensland defend a dodgy deal.

The deal itself is nothing but marketing spin. It is basically a fancy-sounding plan to distract from the dirty deals and out-and-out political pork-barrelling and rorting that has become the pungent hallmark of this Liberal government. Western Sydney residents are paying the price for this, unless of course they happen to live in a seat occupied by a Liberal MP. Is that fair? No. Should residents be forced to sit in clogged roads or late, crowded trains because Liberals at a federal and New South Wales level want to rort and politically manipulate infrastructure funding? No. Western Sydney infrastructure is not being determined on the need of residents. It's being determined purely by the political needs of the Liberals.

Exhibit A is answers that Finance Minister Mathias Cormann recently released to a question on notice about the Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan Local Roads Package—a lot of blue, not much red. It's a Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan. There are a dozen seats in Western Sydney fully or partially covered. It's one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. You go through the list, and there are nearly 30 projects either completed, constructed or with plans for future work, and, out of the list, the overwhelming bulk sit in either marginal Liberal seats or targeted seats. Just two projects are in seats outside this classification or in Labor seats. One is in the Chifley electorate: $200,000 for intersection works at Luxford Road and High Street leading into Mount Druitt Hospital.

Many of the 30 projects are designed to upgrade intersections. During the election you had the Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure breathlessly announce federal investment into roundabout construction. Seriously. That was last year. This year in the budget look at the priority road and rail projects—six in Liberal-National seats, two in Labor seats and one split between Labor and Liberal. It's all here in the budget papers. Of the projects in the two Labor seats, one is for the Prospect Highway upgrade in the electorate of my neighbour the member for Greenway. Putting aside the fact that the project descriptions for both the New South Wales and federal governments get the name of the road to be upgraded wrong—it's Blacktown Road, not Reservoir Road—the project was announced as a plan by the Baird government five years ago. Five years ago they announced this upgrade project for Prospect Highway, and now we're expecting to see work on this begin in 2021.

Overall I simply doubt the New South Wales or fed Libs will deliver, because they always make the funding announcements and don't spend. There was $1.7 billion underspent last year and an average of $1.2 billion underspent for the last six. When it comes to Western Sydney, or any deal for infrastructure for Western Sydney, they've always got an announcement or a press release but nothing concrete to make life better. The Australian Automobile Association reckons that the road and traffic congestion that we encounter is a problem for 78 per cent of Chifley residents, but this infrastructure pork-barrel can't do anything or find anything to decongest the major road leading to Mount Druitt Hospital: Francis Road, Rooty Hill. There is nothing to decongest Richmond Road between Dean Park and Marsden Park, which sits on the doorstep of massive residential growth; nothing to decongest the late and crowded T1 western rail line; nothing to extend the North West Metro rail line to St Marys; nothing to progress the M9 running parallel to the M7.

On top of this, the Western Sydney City Deal that we are talking about excludes the largest local government area in Western Sydney, Blacktown City Council, who are expecting massive residential growth.

They need to plan for the emergence of a new CBD at Marsden Park. They should be an ideal member of the deal. Why are they excluded? It is because they are one of the few councils to stand up and call out the federal government's dodgy, politically corrupt approach to infrastructure spending—the same spending that not only sees infrastructure built to meet political need but also saw dodgy land deals around Badgerys Creek airport delivered to Liberal Party donors, with the Liberals paying 10 times more for this land. The airport was announced five years ago and billions have been ploughed into it, and no-one in Western Sydney knows where the planes will fly because no flightpath has been released. This just goes to show that the way the Liberals approach infrastructure is all about politics. It is not about need; it's about their political need. It is an absolute embarrassment that they have not one Western Sydney MP to back in their deal in this chamber right now. (Time expired)

Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was a far more inspired performance from the member for Chifley about the motion than that of the motion's mover, the member for Scullin. Member for Chifley, maybe you should be on the front bench with a few of the others. It was a great audition. You would be making a few on your side nervous, I'm pretty sure—very, very nervous. So well done. You were far more inspiring than the Labor member who actually bothered to move the motion.

It just goes to show that, when it comes to infrastructure, the Morrison government and this side of the chamber are about actually delivering infrastructure on the ground; whereas, for Labor members, infrastructure is about playing politics, trying to find the political point and trying to push it. In the case of the Labor government in Queensland, it is about trying to stymie or delay it and trying to do everything they can not do it so they can use it for a political point.

This side of the chamber and the Morrison government are all about creating jobs. Never has it been more been more important than now, during the COVID recession, that, with our economic recovery, we create jobs and opportunities for Australians as we climb this mountain out of the COVID-19 recession. But, of course, we are not just delivering infrastructure; we are also investing in skills and training, building on the instant asset write-off scheme, providing tax relief for hardworking Australians, increasing our sovereign manufacturing capability and investing in shovel-ready projects and infrastructure. We are also supporting mental health services and the NDIS as well as our local manufacturing capability. That is what providing the necessary support to families, businesses and industries during the COVID-19 recession is all about.

We know the scale of the challenge. With the COVID-19 recession, we have seen the global economy contract by 4.5 cent. Compare that to less than one per cent under the GFC. Infrastructure plays a vital role in our recovery, and I'm delighted to talk about the infrastructure that the Morrison government is delivering, supporting over 100,000 jobs on worksites right across the country. It is a record program of $110 billion to create these jobs and to get Australia moving again. In the 2020-21 budget, we committed an extra $1.3 billion of government funding for infrastructure projects in Queensland. This includes $750 million for the Coomera Connector, $201 million for the Bruce Highway, and $112 million for the Centenary Bridge upgrade in my own electorate of Ryan, servicing the people of Ryan.

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the government has committed an additional $2.2 billion in new infrastructure and accelerated projects to Queensland, and that includes in the Ryan electorate. On top of the $112 million for the upgraded Centenary motorway, the Morrison government has also committed $50 million for the Indooroopilly roundabout upgrade, $12.5 million for the Kenmore upgrade, $1.4 million for the intersection at St Lucia, $700,000 for the new Gresham Street bridge at The Gap and over $11 million for the Brisbane City Council to upgrade local roads and improve safety. Together, these funding commitments demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to fixing local roads in the electorate of Ryan and getting people home to their families sooner and safer.

An important way that we deliver this infrastructure is via our established city deals, and there is a new one in South-East Queensland that is been negotiated at the moment.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How's that going for you?

Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection from the member for Scullin. It would go a lot faster if we had a LNP state government instead of a Labor state government. This is part of the problem. There is federal government funding on the table for infrastructure in South-East Queensland—one of the fastest-growing regions in the whole of Australia—and the biggest council, Brisbane City Council, is working hand in glove with the federal government to deliver infrastructure. Then, right in the middle, you have a Labor state government who refuse to get moving, refuse to get going, refuse to put shovels in the ground. Even when they're not asked for funding by the Morrison government, even when the federal government is willing to put all the money in, they can't even get out of their own way and allow us to spend that money on infrastructure for Queensland residents.

Mr Giles interjecting—

In response to your interjection, Member for Scullin, I would say to the people of Ryan and the people of Queensland, vote for an LNP government to get the South East Queensland City Deal moving, because that is what we need to continue to invest in infrastructure, just like we have seen successful city deals in Townsville, Darwin, Western Sydney, Hobart, Launceston, Geelong and Adelaide, which are helping to drive the COVID-19 economic recoveries in those cities. That's what we want for South-East Queensland as well, and electing an LNP government at the end of this week will be key to that.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the city deals in this place and the deals that were struck with Western Sydney as some sort of payoff for the impacts of the Western Sydney airport, an airport for which we still don't have flight paths because the government's too scared to get that conversation out of the bag.

There is no question that there have been some funds for some really great little projects in the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury. These are the things they have wanted to do, but they have been starved of funds for so long as the Liberal governments froze their increases year on year and every government has asked councils to do more with less.

But it's the oversight of the spending of billions of dollars that we should be worried about. The lack of oversight shouldn't surprise anyone, given the Liberals' aversity to scrutiny. Let's look at the abject failure of the government to buy land that delivers value to money to the Australian taxpayer called the Leppington Triangle. $30 million for land worth $3 million—of all the valuations done, they chose the most expensive, an admission by the secretary of the infrastructure department that the unit making these decisions, the Western Sydney Unit, needed to be cleaned out. That does not give anyone confidence in the billions of dollars that are being spent.

Sadly, the billions are not being spent in my electorate of Macquarie. The Blue Mountains got one set of lights on the Great Western Highway as part of the city deal. This was a small project already planned, but it is not going to help the traffic that we may see as a result of the Western Sydney airport. The other real problem is that the extra $4 billion increase in the cost of building the Sydney Metro Western Sydney airport line does absolutely nothing to make it easier for Hawkesbury residents or businesses to access the airport. There isn't going to be a connection to the Richmond train line any time in the foreseeable future. The trip to the Western Sydney airport will involve catching a train to Blacktown, changing trains to St Marys and then changing to the new line. The public transport needs of the Hawkesbury have been completely ignored in the infrastructure planning for this airport, and so too have been the road needs. There is nothing to improve the roads leaving the Hawkesbury and heading south to the airport. It's not until you reach the Penrith area—in the electorate of Lindsay—that any kind of upgrade occurs. As always with the Liberals, the Hawkesbury's being taken for granted. The people in the Hawkesbury are just expected to put up with stuff from Liberal governments. In fact they're expected to put up with what they don't get, rather than what they do get. The same criticisms have been made by the member for Macarthur about the lack of rail link to his community only a few kilometres south of the airport.

More than anything, though, this is a missed opportunity to improve the safety of the Hawkesbury, which is among the most flood-prone valleys in the country. Yet there's nothing done to improve residents' safety by upgrading roads. Right now we have a state government that tells us you have to evacuate from the Hawkesbury via road if there is a major flood. There is a video showing you where to go, but it also stresses that every one of these roads floods, so you need to leave early. That is what happens when the roads are on the floodplain. We all know the Jim Anderson bridge locally, but did you know it was built by a Labor state government to make it easier to leave when the waters are rising? It is pretty much the only piece of infrastructure that has been put in. There are no roads that the last seven years of federal Liberals or the last nine years of state Liberals have delivered to this community to make it safer—certainly not the new Windsor bridge, which has already been shown to offer minimal support for flood resilience, and certainly not the Richmond duplication project, where the RMS has stated categorically that planning for flood is not part of its remit because it doesn't have enough of a budget to include flood resilience. That is a federally funded project. Let's remember that these city deals are meant to 'secure the future prosperity and liveability of our cities'. Well, hardly! The state government is looking to allow a further 134,000 residents to join the 30,000 existing residents on the floodplain over the next 30 years, yet there are no steps in the so-called Western Parkland City to improve evacuation of those residents. In 2017, an evacuation infrastructure analysis that was completed for the New South Wales government by Infrastructure New South Wales found that effective evacuation is the only measure that guarantees a reduced risk to life in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley. A $950 million program of upgrading roads to allow evacuation at higher flood levels was considered before being dismissed due to cost in the government's 2017 strategy. A similar finding in 2012 found there is significant risk without evacuation upgrades and recommended that routes around Windsor, Bligh Park, Richmond and Penrith be upgraded. These are the sorts of practical things the city deals should have invested in.

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

As we deal with the dual health and economic crisis of COVID-19, I know that the people of Fisher now more than ever want their three tiers of government—federal, state and local—to work together. They're not interested in what tier of government has jurisdiction over a particular issue or which of us is in charge. To those on the other side: let's not play silly political games, as you've been doing this morning. The people of Fisher, and most Australians, want us to cooperate as a team in their best interests and to get on with the job of delivering.

The coalition government understood this need for cooperation long before this crisis. As early as 2016, the then Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation released our Cities Agenda. With this statement, the government declared the Commonwealth's door open for state premiers, local mayors and the private sector to join us in a coordinated and effective approach to long-term planning. We've provided a platform for cooperative long-term infrastructure investment, both public and private, which can help our economies to grow. With the COVID crisis on hand, this approach is exactly what Australians want to see, not the Punch and Judy politics of this disappointing partisan motion.

The government's city deals concept is a bold agenda and one for which the government should be congratulated. We're already starting to see the benefits of this approach. Work is complete on the new $250 million North Queensland stadium and we've begun the $193 million port upgrades under the Townsville City Deal. I'm sure the member for Herbert is very, very happy with the outcomes of the Townsville City Deal. Local companies have taken up major contracts on these projects, already bringing hundreds of jobs to the community. Two hundred and sixty million dollars has been invested in Launceston to move the University of Tasmania's campus into the city centre, and the library and Student Experience building are already under construction. If I remember correctly, that deal was put together when there were Labor federal members in that seat, so there goes that argument for Labor! This project in Launceston is already employing 65 people, with another 650 jobs expected to be created. Thirty more projects are progressing under this city deal alone, and the Launceston economy is growing year on year. In fact, I believe the Tasmanian economy is growing the fastest amongst the whole national economy, amongst all the states. Good on you, Tassie. You're doing great work. It must be the great government you've got in that state.

However, as my community has seen in recent years, this government is pressing ahead with investing in much-needed infrastructure in regions with and without a city deal. The recent federal budget included a record $110 billion over the next ten years to build new transport infrastructure, as well as a further $3½ billion to build new water infrastructure. This will support over 100,000 jobs across 10 years. In my electorate of Fisher, we've seen a total investment of almost $3.2 billion. I hear the member for Goldstein saying, 'How much?' There's $3.2 billion in upgrades to the Bruce Highway between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. This includes an extra lane each way all the way from the coast to Pine Rivers as well as major upgrades to the critical intersections at Deception Bay, Maroochydore Road and Caloundra Road among others. The recent budget allocated an additional $95.2 million to ensure that these upgrades are completed on time and in full. The current phase of these works between Caloundra Road and Sunshine Motorway are scheduled to be completed in the middle of next year, while the next section from Caboolture-Bribie Island Road to Exit 163, the Steve Irwin Way, is scheduled to begin construction later this year. In Fisher alone, these upgrades are already supporting 680 jobs. You're probably wondering why I'm saying these things. That is because this is proof that whilst City Deals are great and they're really important, you don't need a City Deal if you're a good federal member to get funding for your local region. You do not need City Deal to get funding for— (Time expired)

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is interrupted, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.