Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Australia's severe and intense weather events over recent years have placed immense pressure on the nation's regional, rural, and remote road network;

(b) the Australian Local Government Association estimates that the cost of repairing and replacing flood impacted roads is at least $3.8 billion in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria alone; and

(c) the Government has scrapped the specifically targeted Bridges Renewal Program and Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program which, when combined, were valued at $193.5 million per annum by 2026-27;

(2) acknowledges that the federal budget saw financial assistance grants to local government cut as a percentage of tax revenue from 0.52 per cent to 0.50 per cent in stark contrast to councils' long-term aim of achieving 1.0 per cent of tax revenue; and

(3) calls on the Government to invest in Australia's regional, rural and remote road network to support local governments, and improve road safety and freight productivity.

I am grateful to the House for the opportunity to debate this motion. In short, it's a motion that calls on those opposite who, contrary to the previous speaker, might not be aware that they are in charge of the agenda and, indeed, the nation to increase investment in Australia's rural, regional and remote road network to support local governments, improve road safety and freight productivity.

I'm so pleased that the member opposite—the relevant minister, who, prior to coming to this place, was a mayor of her local community—is here to listen to this. My message to the member for Eden-Monaro is: why aren't you standing up on behalf of your former colleagues, the mayors across the country?

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's why we've doubled Roads to Recovery.

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection. The member opposite says, 'We've doubled Roads to Recovery.' So, ladies and gentlemen in the gallery, Roads to Recovery was set at $500 million. The local government sector asked this government to increase it to $800 million. Do you know what they've done? They've increased it to a billion dollars. We should all be very happy about that, shouldn't we? Because it has gone from $500 million to a billion dollars. In anyone's language, that's an increase. But unfortunately, like everything with this government, you need to read the fine print, because the spin's one thing, and the reality is something else. So I'm so pleased that the member opposite, who has responsibility for this space, has raised Roads to Recovery, because the reality is that it will get to a billion dollars in 10 years time.

It's $500 million today. The local government sector asked for $800 million, and those opposite said: 'You know what. We'll knock it up by $50 million a year.' But that's not what they told the community. They told the community, 'We're increasing ceasing it to a billion dollars', and so they are. But my 15-year-old will be 25 by the time that happens. News flash for those opposite: the way they're operate the economy, inflation will be such that a billion dollars in 10 years time may well be something closer to $500 million today.

Those opposite need to be very careful about these really cute arguments. The reality is that there are 800,000 kilometres of road network in this country, and 600,000 of it is managed by the good people who work and volunteer their time—I'm talking about members of local government—to manage that road network. Those opposite want us to see increased wages. I don't want to live in a low wage Australia, but the only way we achieve this—

Those opposite are actually creating the working poor by having inflation grow faster than wages, so you have real wage decreases.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let them go, Mr Deputy Speaker. They unfortunately bear themselves out.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No.

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The reality is that the only way you can sustain higher increases in wages in this country is to drive productivity. Those opposite need to realise that wage increases can't just happen; they need to be on the back of productivity increases. That's why we need to be investing in this road network. We need to make it cheaper to get our products from rural and regional Australia to the market and to the port. That's how we drive higher lifestyle outcomes in this country.

While I'm on the topic of local government, and while I have the minister opposite, local government also asks for a higher share of tax revenue to go to local government. When we left office, the share was 0.52 per cent. The aim for local government is to drive it to one per cent. But do you know what it is today? It's 0.5 per cent. I appreciate that's a modest decrease, but it's heading in the wrong direction. I don't blame the member opposite. Unfortunately, she's not the senior minister, and, in a way, I don't even blame the senior minister. It's those in ERC that need to take a serious look at what they're doing in this country. They're cancelling the Bridges Renewal Program.

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You froze indexation.

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think we've tickled a nerve, because the minister opposite is getting upset. We may have frozen funding, but you've cut funding. You cancelled bridges renewal and the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program. You will own this. The roads are decaying, and it's not going to change.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Dorothea Mackellar said, we're a land of drought and flooding rains. There is no doubt that the harsh weather has had an impact on our road network. The Hunter has been impacted by that weather as much as any other area. Less than a month after I was declared the member for Hunter, my electorate was smashed by floods that cut a swathe of damage throughout the Hunter. Roads right across the Hunter electorate, from Lake Macquarie to Muswellbrook, were severely damaged. Unlike those opposite, who did nothing to help following the bushfires that ravaged parts of the Hunter in 2019 and 2020, the Albanese government stepped up and delivered to the areas impacted by these weather events. We provided councils with 100 per cent of the 2023-24 financial assistance grants—that is $3.1 billion—in advance, which was paid to the states and territories in June 2023. We also joined the NSW government to provide $200 million as part of the Infrastructure Betterment Fund to help recovery efforts focus on rebuilding damaged and destroyed infrastructure, such as bridges and stormwater drainage, in a more resilient way. In a further show of bipartisanship, the NSW government and the federal government provided $312½ million to target road- and transport-related infrastructure through the Regional Roads and Transport Recovery Package.

In times of need, the community don't want politics; they just want help. The former NSW Liberal National government should have put politics aside and helped impact the communities with the funds they needed to rebuild. Public infrastructure can literally save lives during emergencies, whether it's roads and bridges being used as evacuation routes or stormwater drainage better managing the large volume of water during floods. But those opposite showed how pathetic they are with their grubby political games. There is work to do, and the Albanese government is getting on with the job by strengthening its commitment to regional roads, with significant increase in funding and changes to programs to reduce the administrative burden on local councils. In my electorate, we have committed $560 million to the Singleton Bypass, which is underway and expected to be open to traffic late 2026.

Likewise, we have committed $270 million to the Muswellbrook bypass, which has seen early works get underway, and work to announce the contractor is also underway. The Putty Road, which was damaged in 2022, has also received significant funding to repair multiple large landslips and for stabilisation works. Let's not forget the joint funding of $4.5 million between state and federal governments to raise the Kilfoyles Bridge at Lambs Valley. If you listened to those opposite, you would think nothing is happening—that not a single bit of roadworks has been undertaken. It is like the little boy who cried wolf. They have told so many fake stories about road funding that they are beginning to believe their own lies.

The Albanese Labor government continues to deliver on its commitment to improve road safety in the Hunter by significantly increasing funding available to local councils to maintain and upgrade their road networks. The Roads to Recovery funding will rise gradually from $500 million to $1 billion per year. Black spot funding will also increase from the current annual commitment of $110 million to $150 million. The Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Bridges Renewal Program will be merged into a new Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program. The amount of funding for the new program will also gradually increase such that $200 million will be available per year, up from the current $150 million total annual investment in the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Bridges Renewal Program.

These programs are already having a significant impact on road quality and safety in New South Wales communities, with millions of dollars flowing to local councils under Roads to Recovery funding. In addition, a combined total of more than $440 million has been provided to New South Wales across the life of the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Bridges Renewal Program. Those opposite want to play petty political games and are so miserable about the great work that we are doing that, if you gave them a straw, they would suck the fun out of someone else's day. This motion is a perfect example of that.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to rise in support of the excellent motion put forward by the member for Barker. The reality is that the roads are a disgrace. They're getting worse. Despite platitudes from those on that side of the chamber, I don't see any improvement in the roads and I don't see any effort happening on the ground to fix what is a significant problem, particularly for regional areas.

There have been some terrible weather impacts on our infrastructure, particularly in my electorate. Communities were isolated and displaced, sometimes for weeks and months. The national freight supply chains were disrupted. There have been lengthy diversions to deliver essential goods. In my electorate, this was manifested particularly because we don't have a second bridge over the Goulburn River. There's only one, which is called the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway. When that gets cut, it means that not only are emergency services vehicles cut on both sides of the river but fresh produce, which is a stock-in-trade for my electorate, whether it be fruit or milk, can't get from one side to the other. Also we couldn't get exports to the port. A lot of these exports are perishable.

The coalition government was attempting to work with a recalcitrant Victorian government on the Shepparton bypass, a critical road infrastructure project that would have put that second crossing over the Goulburn River and would have alleviated a lot of the problems that I've just described. Labor's action in office was to rip away $208 million that had been put towards that project by the previous coalition government, devastating those in my community who wanted to see some action on the infrastructure project.

Normal maintenance regimes and funding will not catch up with what is a terrible deterioration of the road conditions around regional Australia. Instead, we've got this game of patching up potholes, reducing speed limits and erecting 'rough surface' warning signs. It can be many months of dodging damaged roads before even temporary repairs happen, and the temporary repairs seem to wash out. I don't know what's happening under the regime of the far too long existing Victorian Labor government and now the federal Labor government, but the roads are deteriorating and the temporary 'improvements' that are being made seem to get washed out with every rain event.

Now, national and state roads are very bad. Local road networks are worse. Locally controlled roads account for approximately 77 per cent of total road length in Australia, and the National Transport Commission estimates that 36 per cent of all kilometres travelled in Australia are on local roads. A third of all heavy vehicles registered in Victoria are in my electorate, and their operations are made more dangerous and more costly because of the state of the roads.

These heavy vehicle operators are putting millions and millions of dollars worth of assets on the roads. They deserve a safe working environment, and a safe road that's in reasonable condition is a safe working environment. They deserve to be able to put their heavy vehicles on the roads, earning export dollars for us, often taking agricultural produce in my electorate or mining goods in other electorates to Australian ports. They deserve to be able to do that without millions and millions of dollars in expensive repairs to their vehicles because of the terrible state of the roads.

I want to finish on this point. Statistics show that 55 per cent of road fatalities occur on rural roads, but only 25 per cent of the Victorian population live in rural Victoria. We need safer drivers. The drivers have a responsibility in this for their own safe behaviour, but we also need safer vehicles and safer roads. That's where government can come in and add to the safety of people on our roads by improving the road network. I note that, in the member for Barker's private member's motion, he requests that the data be more transparent about what causes some of these road accidents and what causes some of these road fatalities. Often, we don't know what it is. We assume that a major contributing factor is the state of the roads, but we can't get that information out, and we need that information to be able to apply for black spot funding and for other approaches to improving road safety by improving road conditions.

I support the member for Barker's private member's bill because the roads are in a terrible state and I don't see the government, either state or federal, doing enough about it.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You wouldn't believe it. Apparently, the roads in Australia and country Australia were perfect up until 20 months ago, when the Labor government came to office! Apparently, after 10 years of coalition government, the roads were perfect and it's only been in the last 20 months that they've all deteriorated and started to fall apart. What a joke. Those opposite had 10 years to deal with this issue, and what we saw in those 10 years was a deterioration in Australia's road network. This government is putting more money into Australia's road network to address the issue.

I actually thank the member for Barker for offering the opportunity to speak on this matter. I'm very proud, as a member of the Albanese government, to be speaking on it, because the issue of severe weather and roads is, unfortunately, one close to my heart and my electorate. Just last Wednesday, my constituents were at the mercy of a very severe thunderstorm—the cell over the townships of St Helens and Scamander over the east coast, with 145 millilitres of rain recorded in the space of just a few hours. The heavy rains and lightning strikes flooded homes, knocked out power and cut roads on Tasmania's east coast, including the state government's Tasman Highway, which is the main entry and exit point to the area. All the while, the rest of the state, particularly in the south, spent most of Wednesday and Thursday in temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees. It may not sound hot to much of mainland Australia, but in Tasmania that's a heatwave, with the SES and fireys fighting bushfires through the central highlands of my electorate. Just today I've heard that there's another watch-and-act in that area, with conditions pretty dicey as well. I'd like to put on the record my thanks for the remarkable work of the SES, fireys and volunteers, as well as members of the public, who do so much to help others and protect properties, whether from flooding or fire.

The severity and frequency of heatwaves and flooding increasing due to climate change—that's no secret. We are a government that will work alongside state governments and councils to ensure that the funding is there to keep our roads prepared and safe when these events occur. The Albanese government is strengthening its commitment to regional roads, with significant increases in funding and changes to programs to reduce the administrative burden on local councils. Fifty-seven per cent of major projects we are investing in under the Infrastructure Investment Program are in regional areas, which include the $629 million for the new Bridgewater Bridge in my electorate. Our Roads to Recovery funding will rise from $500 million to $1 billion per year over the decade and black spot funding will increase from the current annual commitment of $110 million per year to $150 million per year. Funding is going up.

Financial assistance grants to local governments have increased at each budget under this government. They were $2.8 billion in 2022-23 and are now increasing to $3.1 billion in 2023-24. In my electorate, the government has committed to significant increases in road funding for my local councils. In May last year we announced additional funding for country roads in all 12 councils in my electorate. They were set to receive $6.4 million, and they're now receiving an additional $3.7 million in funding as part of our commitment to the regions. In June $1.8 million in funding was matched by the Tasmanian government as part of the Disaster Ready Fund arrangements to prepare the Northern Midlands LGA for flooding.

Opposite, there are cries that we are apparently scrapping the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Bridges Renewal Program. They are merely headline-grabbing cries from those opposite, as they ignore the fact we are simply merging those programs into a new, safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program, and not a single dollar is being cut. We will, in fact, gradually increase the funding from $150 million to $200 million. We are well aware of the pressures facing local governments in the face of weather events across the country and will continue to work with them to ensure the safety of everyone using our roads.

Finally, the member for Barker mentioned wages and the link to productivity. He's got to understand that over the last two decades productivity has been on a steep increase across the Western world, but wages have largely flatlined. It's great to get more productivity, but we are unashamedly a government that backs higher wages. We want Australian workers to earn more and keep more of what they earn.

Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the member for Barker's motion, and I too call on the government to invest in Australia's regional and rural remote road network and to support local governments to improve road safety and freight productivity.

The Flynn electorate is over 132,000 square kilometres—almost twice the size of Tasmania. There are 401 individual localities in my electorate, and every single one of them has got serious concerns about the condition of their road networks. Here's why: lack of funding for road infrastructure has already been identified by the Queensland Auditor-General's report as involving a projected $9 billion shortfall. Bridge and culvert refurbishment and road resheeting are operating at less than 20 per cent of their budget needs. In the Gladstone area there are four bridges with oversize load and weight restrictions on them. These bridges need to be repaired because they present huge logistical problems for the region. The former coalition government secured $100 million for this port access road problem back on 3 April 2019. However, this has not progressed, and access to the Gladstone Port project is stagnant and has still been in the planning stages since 2020.

Motorists have to navigate through 19 sets of traffic lights when travelling through Rockhampton. The Rockhampton Ring Road has been a political football for several years, with construction only starting late last year. In the meantime, the town is filled with delays every time an oversized load is driven through, including defence machinery and renewable energy components.

Another bridge that has weight and load restrictions is the Neerkol Bridge near Stanwell Power Station. The bridge was built in 1974. Stanwell has been identified as a clean energy hub by the Queensland government, yet the bridge provides several challenges going forward not only due to load and weight restrictions but also to flooding problems.

Labor's proposed carbon tax on new vehicles will have serious consequences for regional Australia and its road network. Australians could pay up to $25,000 more for their favourite family car, SUV or four-wheel drive, and up to $18,000 more for their favourite ute, according to research undertaken by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. This will impact individuals, households and businesses across Australia, including in the electorate of Flynn. These impacts include $11,020 more for a Toyota RAV4, $12,180 more for an MG ZS, $25,050 more for a Toyota LandCruiser, $17,950 more for a Ford Ranger, $14,490 more for a Toyota HiLux and $13,830 more for an Isuzu D-Max. Labor's policy will hit families who rely on SUVs to get their children to school, and tradies and farmers who rely on their utes to do their job. Penalties will be imposed on popular petrol, diesel and hybrid models to subsidise the cost of electric vehicles for the rich and inner-city elites.

The Flynn electorate is different to other metropolitan areas. We drive longer distances and we use our cars for work and recreation. Labor claims the new vehicle efficiency standard will result in lower running costs for new cars—but not if you can't afford to buy one. If Labor's family car carbon tax goes ahead in its current planned trajectory, some manufacturers are also likely to withdraw from the Australian market.

The Labor government's ongoing funding cuts to road programs, such as to the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program, highlight Labor's failure to understand the crucial role that Australia's road networks provide in driving national economic growth and prosperity. Flynn projects that have been previously funded by the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program include the heavy vehicle detour at Theodore, the productivity enhancement package on the Gregory Highway, the Goovigen Connection Road, the Biloela heavy bypass, Macquarie Street at Gracemere, the Boongary Road upgrade at Kabra, and the Dawson Highway Gladstone-Biloela upgrades.

I wish to conclude and express my absolute disgust at the Labor government's decision to push back funding of $400 million to upgrade the beef roads network, which would have seen 457 kilometres of beef corridors sealed from the start date of 2025-26 financial year, but has been pushed out to the 2027-28 financial year. The government's decision to delay this funding for the beef corridors is evidence that they are happy to treat Central Queensland like a cash cow but not invest in this critical infrastructure that is so important to business and industry.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I really wonder what the point of the National Party is. Why are they in coalition with the Liberals? They haven't achieved anything in regional and rural areas for nearly a decade. We've seen on display this morning the political strategy and tactics of the Liberal and National parties. The National Party want to forget they were in power. It's all about forgetting they were in power for 10 years. And, for the Liberal Party, in the last few weeks it's been all about fear; you've got to be fearful of everyone. So it's about forget and fear. That's the modus operandi of the coalition parties' strategy and tactics.

This motion is so important to the member for Barker that he's just left the chamber and hasn't bothered listening to his erstwhile honourable colleague, the member for Flynn. He's not a bad bloke, actually, even though we might disagree on politics from time to time. But he hasn't even stayed here. He's put forward a motion in the chamber and he's got so many people here to support him, but he hasn't even stayed to listen to his Queensland colleague or Victorian National Party colleagues. So have a yarn to the Liberal Party, member for Flynn, because I can tell you that they've deserted you and done nothing in regional areas for a decade.

The member for Barker talked about wages. Now, we've had three consecutive quarters of wage growth in this country. During the ATM government—that is, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government—they could spend money everywhere in areas they wanted to, except in National Party seats, because they didn't get anything, apparently, according to these members here opposite. Under the ATM government, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government—the second-biggest taxing government in the history of the Commonwealth government, after the Howard government—wages grew by two per cent on average per year. Under us, wages are growing by almost four per cent, and that's what the data from the December quarter said recently. The member for Barker can come here and give us lectures! We've changed industrial relations law. We've got enterprise bargaining agreements in the health area and the education area, and we've regulated increases in aged-care funding for people who work in the sector.

Now, I live in a regional and rural area in Queensland, and I can tell you that I won't take lectures from those opposite, who spent election campaign after election campaign opposing upgrades to roads in my electorate, including the Ipswich Motorway between Brisbane and Ipswich. That motorway is important for the rural areas up towards Toowoomba, south to the New South Wales border and up to the Brisbane Valley Highway. Those opposite opposed—election after election—upgrades. In fact, they went to the 2010 election saying they were going to stop construction. That's the need of the National Party. Warren Truss stood here in the parliament and said, if they win the election, they'll stop construction on that important regional road. So I won't take lectures from those opposite when it comes to regional roads and rural infrastructure.

They opposed the recovery of Queensland after the 2011 floods. When we put forward stimulus packages and massive road funding increases when we were last in government, the coalition members—including the National Party members—voted against that road funding. They voted against it. They were claiming that they were against school halls and libraries, except in their own electorates when they turned up to open them and said that they weren't against them. But they opposed the road funding. They voted against road funding projects in the federal parliament that were crucial for the rural and regional areas in South-East Queensland—including my electorate, the member for Oxley's electorate and the member for Moreton's electorate.

We've had major floods, as the member for Barker in his motion talks about. In my electorate, we had floods in 2011, 2013 and 2022. I experienced, in 1974, the '74 flood as a kid and I saw how devastating it was and the adverse impact it had on my local community of Ipswich. It's important to rebuild—and we did. When I was the assistant minister to the Attorney-General, we actually provided $11 billion for road infrastructure and other community infrastructure for South-East Queensland and Queensland generally. Those opposite sat in this chamber and voted against that funding. They voted against it. Don't listen to what they say. Look at how they vote and what they do. They've got political amnesia. The only time they remember anything is when they go on the ABC and Nemesis; otherwise, the last nine or 10 years don't exist because they didn't achieve anything over the last nine or 10 years. This motion should be treated with the disrespect that I give it, and I'll sit down because I think it's a ridiculous motion.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.