George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I don't accept any of that. For a start, the way these major infrastructure projects are financed is through financing from various sources, and often that financing comes from the public sector. Senator Bartlett, your memory may stretch back to the development of the Bowen Basin by Sir Leslie Thiess in the 1960s and 1970s, one of the great coalmining projects in Australian mining history. There was a lot of public financing that went into the financing of the Bowen Basin way back in the 1960s and the 1970s, so the suggestion that public funds may not be invested to finance major state infrastructure projects is, quite frankly, ridiculous. As to what the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility does in relation to any possible financial accommodation made by some Chinese interests, I'm not in a position to tell you.