Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I can reassure Senator Macdonald that none of the amendments that the government is supporting and which were moved by the opposition today have that effect. These are essentially amendments that go to the capacity of the parliament to scrutinise, and, if considered appropriate, disallow certain rules and the operating mandate, though we obviously don't expect that the Senate will, and we hope that it won't, be inclined that way. I understand the point, and essentially all of the other amendments go to transparency and to disclosure requirements. So none of it relates to the rights or the powers of a state to stop anything that the Commonwealth would want to initiate from getting ahead.

Let me make this general point. Senator Macdonald raises the NAIF, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. Obviously we were very disappointed when the Queensland Labor government made the decision they did in relation to an important piece of rail infrastructure, which was designed to have opened up the Galilee Basin as the next frontier of coal production and exports, and, of course, the Adani project, being a very substantial project which, when it is built, will create many thousands of jobs, which we want to see happen. When it comes to the development of infrastructure, the Commonwealth of course has to work with relevant state and territory governments about infrastructure in their respective jurisdictions, which is why the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility was set up the way it was. We still hope that this project will proceed. We strongly support the Adani project. We strongly support the need for infrastructure to open up the Galilee Basin as a coal-producing and exporting region across Australia. We very much hope that the billions and billions of dollars of investment that are ready to be deployed can be deployed, and that the thousands and thousands of jobs can be generated. But, as far as the specific amendments in front of the chair are concerned, which the government has indicated we will support, none of them go to the rights of states to stop Commonwealth initiatives when it comes to infrastructure.