Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why do the Prime Minister and the government constantly make big announcements without delivering them, including spending $6.8 billion less on infrastructure than in the budget papers; announcing the National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility in 50 media releases and then scrapping it; announcing the Urban Congestion Fund but delivering only one in five dollars; and spending nothing from the $4 billion emergency response fund on bushfire-devastated communities?

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

We have seen this all day from the opposition. They have saved their worst for last. Here we as the government have come together, and we have been thanking Australians for their tremendous efforts this year, and we continue to do that in this place. I want to thank all those who are out there building the more than $100 billion worth of infrastructure that this government has committed to over the next 10 years—projects like the Western Sydney international airport in particular. This project is going to change not just New South Wales and Sydney; it is going to change the entire nation. When we came to government in 2013, I had sat on the opposition benches for six years. Over those six years, I heard the Leader of the Opposition go on and on and on and on about Western Sydney international airport. He didn't turn a sod. He didn't even get up a sign. The Leader of the Opposition, when it comes to the Western Sydney international airport—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left! The members for Greenway and Bruce!

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

didn't do anything, despite the pleas of those in his electorate and despite everything he said he needed to do on Western Sydney international airport. He was transport minister for six years. He couldn't get a runway. He couldn't get lift-off. He couldn't even get himself out there to actually make the project happen. So I'm not going to take a lecture from the Labor Party, when this government has been delivering the jobs on the ground—the 1½ million jobs that were created before we came into the COVID-19 recession—and saving 700,000 jobs through the economic supports we put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australian people know because they have seen this government get on with the job. They've seen us deliver on the ground. This desperate Leader of the Opposition can crow and carry on all he likes, but the Australian people have worked him out and those behind him have worked him out.