Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that question. Perhaps I can be very clear from the outset: the government went to the last election with a very clear program to address infrastructure bottlenecks in this country. It was a very clear program that included road funding and a fund to develop ports, broadband and other areas that were clearly identified. Not only do we not shy away from your claim; we are proud that we went to the election with this suite of commitments, and we intend to deliver on each and every one of them. We also have, at the same time, a comprehensive package to address climate change. So it is possible for us to address both the infrastructure constraints—we inherited them from those opposite, who spent 11½ years avoiding the Reserve Bank’s warnings, because they just could not understand that, as the economy grew, it introduced capacity constraints—and climate change. Not only do we have a comprehensive package to address climate change, we also have a package designed to ensure that the economy can continue to grow without the inflationary pressures that those opposite have left us with.

As I mentioned earlier, we have the highest inflation rate in 16 years. This is an opposition that has lost touch with the issues affecting ordinary Australians and the pressures that are being put on Australian families. Not only are we proud; we will continue to go forward with both our environment package and our infrastructure package to deal with those issues that you have raised.