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

I thank Senator Pratt for her question. The Prime Minister announced last week that the government will establish a new $6 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund. This fund means we can begin to tackle our urgent infrastructure needs now and put something back into the mining communities that make our economy strong. This fund will invest in critical long-term infrastructure to boost the productive export capacity of the economy, and it will do so in consultation with Infrastructure Australia. The Rudd government is already making record investments in the nation’s economic infrastructure, more than doubling the roads budget and making a tenfold increase on year-on-year spending on rail compared to the previous coalition government. We are doing this to boost Australia’s competitiveness and to boost growth, and it is long overdue.

Those opposite left Australia an enormous infrastructure deficit. Their underinvestment hurt Australian families and businesses and constrained growth and productivity in the Australian economy. Even worse, those opposite, in their famous habit of opposition for opposition’s sake, tried to expand this infrastructure deficit more recently. They opposed the economic stimulus plan—a plan which included road and rail projects to a total value of over $7 billion. That plan was a key reason— (Time expired)