Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every now and then, I revert back to my accountancy days and try to get some details on numbers that the Labor government provide. They've given us an astonishing figure for the Inland Rail, which has blown out to $31 billion. I've asked them to give me some veracity for these figures, and I've received a beautiful document, which, on page 6, says 'is now about $31 billion'. That's about as far as we get. I asked Minister Rose Jackson, who said that the Dungowan Dam project had blown out to $1.1 billion, and what did I get? The same thing—one line, '$1.178 billion'. There was nothing around it. These figures have all the veracity of ambit scratchings on the back of a lavatory door. They are nothing. They will never, ever pass muster. Yet we're told to believe it, and when we ask for details that's what we get.

It's not only about the big, but also the small. The $8.7 million that was going to go to the New England rail trail has been taken away. Tens of millions of dollars in capital investment has been revoked. Mayor Margot Davis has brought this to our attention. The Armidale Regional Council is gutted by the withdrawal of $5.41 million of funding, which could have gone into their tourism precinct. The Labor government has got to stop treating regional Australia as a joke. They have got to actually put their money where their mouth is and invest in this nation and in this infrastructure.