Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

It would be fascinating to do a comparative international study about the level of red tape being added to infrastructure investment—very necessary infrastructure investment—in this country, and do a comparison with what is going on in other countries. I mean, really! The now Liberal opposition are insisting on the most wide-ranging set of criteria, assessments and oversights that I have ever seen—and, I can say pretty confidently, that I would ever have seen outside of any Stalinist state on the face of the globe. This sort of stuff that we are adding to the infrastructure assessment here would make Korea and China look happy; it really would! In fact, it probably exceeds that. So, if these amendments ever see the light of day, in terms of this bill, it will indeed be a fascinating examination of the development of infrastructure. And do not forget: there is a whole range of project evaluations, local zoning, planning requirements and environmental requirements—it would be fascinating to see whether even Korea or China would exceed us in a project assessment.