Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor Party has a real problem at the moment. They've just worked out that on the slim chance that they win the next election they'll have nothing to do because they've spent the last 2½ years opening projects funded by the previous government, full time. So what are their junior ministers and nondescript senators going to do in the next term? I've got a few suggestions.

How about a sod-filling ceremony for the section of Inland Rail that didn't get started? We could have a bushwalk in the area that Narrabri Shire bought for their inland port. Maybe a game of cricket on the parched cotton fields where water was taken to give to South Australia to get votes in the Senate down there? For the real thrillseekers, I've got a beauty: crossing the Newell Highway with a road train full of grain at the site where $44 million for the overpass that was to make access to the Moree grain terminals safe was removed. That would be a great thing to do.

This government has spent an entire session opening projects from funding that has been removed. Roads of Strategic Importance is no longer there. Building Better Regions—no longer there. For the ones that they have funded, they gave the money to the state government, who haven't handed it on yet. Growing Regions—not one cent has flown through to where it's needed.