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

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill. Building infrastructure for the long term can be truly transformative for an economy. It can deliver productivity gains that create jobs and make us a better country.

Labor has a proud record in this area. After the stagnant years of the Howard government, it was Labor that turned infrastructure investment around. Current levels of government infrastructure investment have not been so significant since the 1980s. From 2008-09 up to the last financial year, the Nation Building Program expended a record $36 billion, with a strong focus on the nation's roads, rail and intermodal terminals. We are now ranked No. 1 in the OECD for infrastructure investment as a proportion of the economy, after languishing in the rankings during the Howard years.

Much of the government spending on economic infrastructure is framed by the Nation Building Program (National Land Transport) Act. This bill relates to the majority of federal infrastructure spending on road, rail and intermodal projects. Under Labor, around $6 billion per year flowed through this act to fund land transport projects. The bill as proposed does not represent ambitious change. It is more a pedestrian rearrangement and updating of certain aspects of the existing act.

Labor support continued funding for the Roads to Recovery program beyond mid-2014, but we expect that this program will be subject to rigorous audits to ensure value for money and indeed that this funding adds to existing roads funding rather than displaces funding already available at the local level.

It is important to note that Labor allocated funding for the Roads to Recovery program for five years in the 2013 budget. This funding totalled $1.75 billion. Despite this fact, the coalition has tried to wage a ham-fisted scare campaign about a threat to Roads to Recovery because Labor wants to make this bill better. Labor fully backed Roads to Recovery, without freezing the indexation of financial assistance grants or otherwise stripping the local governments of much-needed funds.

Senators should be aware that this bill passed the other place on 24 March. A Senate committee reported on this bill at the same time. Despite the claimed urgency to extend the Roads to Recovery program, this bill has not come before the Senate once since then—not at all. Of claimed urgency, it passed the House of Representatives in March but has not turned up till today. It has languished for 155 days. This delay is of the government's own choosing. Frankly, the only threat to Roads to Recovery is the coalition.

Let us not forget about the indexation freeze to financial assistance grants to councils, announced in this year's budget, which will continue every year as far as the eye can see. It will effectively wipe out the entire size of the $350 million per annum of the Roads to Recovery budget. So what Mr Tony Abbott gives with one hand he is taking away with the other. He promises increases in one place but takes more than that away in another place.

Local government is justifiably up in arms about this savage and, not surprisingly, unflagged cut. It was not mentioned before the election. But this cut will impact most on regional and rural councils—the very councils with the highest road maintenance burden. And where are our National Party colleagues? The lapdogs, the doormats—they are at it again. They are going to come into this chamber and once again going to vote to disadvantage regional, rural and country voters. They are a sad and sorry reflection of what was once a great party that actually argued for its own constituents. They talk big back home but then they come into the big red and green chambers and just roll over on their backs and let the Liberal Party tickle their tummies. With cut after cut after cut, whether it is to roads, broadband networks, health, or, more importantly, education for rural kids, they roll over on their backs and let the Liberals tickle their tummies. And what is more distressing is that the government appears even to be successful in tickling the tummies of a few of the crossbench senators. That is what is really disturbing about this debate today.