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

I think that, particularly on Mr Deegan from Infrastructure Australia, you are casting quite a slur there, Senator Abetz, and I know you do not actually mean to do that. I assure you Mr Deegan has had full opportunity to address your questions and he has done so, so I will endeavour to get for you copies of his transcript about the processes of Infrastructure Australia.

Let us be clear about this. The Rudd government put in place an economic package that dealt with the short term successfully—despite being opposed by those opposite—and that has medium- and long-term solutions: the infrastructure spend to deal with the medium-term situation and the infrastructure outcomes in rail, ports, broadband and roads. We are looking at all of these as medium- and long-term solutions that this economy needs and that were the subject of enormous neglect by your government. There were 18 reports, from recollection, from the Reserve Bank that made mention of the fact that the country had infrastructure bottlenecks. Your government chose—