Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Victorian Labor state government never ceases to amaze. It is spending billions and billions of dollars on the Suburban Rail Loop—wasting money. If we are elected to government federally, the coalition will not provide a cent for that project because we know that money needs to go into our roads. Here we have the roads minister, Melissa Horne, coming down to south-west Victoria and passing the buck on the Princes Highway. When we were in government, we gave $60 million to fix the Warrnambool to Port Fairy part of the Princes Highway. What has the state government done with that money? We said that because it's a road of national significance we would put in 80 cents for every dollar that was invested in that road. The state only had to put in 20 cents. We put in a further $80 million, yet she's saying that investment in that road didn't go up under us. What has happened since federal Labor got in though—and this is what she should have called out—is that they have dropped their contribution from 80 cents back to 50 cents, and that is why we're not seeing anything being done on that road. It's Labor versus Labor, and that means nothing is occurring.

The other great tragedy is that she talks about the maintenance budget. The maintenance budget for roads right across Victoria under the Victorian state Labor government is $964 million. That has been cut. That maintenance budget is for every single state government road right across the state. So, while they're putting $30 billion, $40 billion, $50 billion, $60 billion into the Suburban Rail Loop, they don't even put $1 billion into maintenance across the whole road network in Victoria. It is a disgrace. To come down to south-west Victoria and pass the buck—and that is what this headline in the Warrnambool Standard says: passing the buck on the highway is an utter, utter disgrace. It is only a coalition government federally and at the state level that can invest in these roads and that can invest in the Princes Highway because we understand how important it is to the local community; it is obvious. Labor, both federal and state, do not get that.

I also say to the minister that it was great that you were down at the Port Fairy wharf so that you were able to see another investment from us: $1.4 million invested into that precinct by the coalition government. We'd love to see you match that as well.