Perin Davey (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We've heard a lot today about our morning note, which we receive and read voraciously, and I would certainly be amazed if the ALP didn't follow a similar process. Otherwise, how can you keep yourselves informed about what your agenda is? On our side of the chamber, we are well informed as to what our agenda is, and I thank you for raising the issue of what our government can do and what levers we have in our toolbox that we can use to stimulate our economy. We are certainly doing that. Our government has a 10-year, $100 billion infrastructure pipeline that is going to stimulate our economy and create jobs. Most importantly, it will create jobs in regional Australia and regional New South Wales, which is getting me very excited.

What has the team on the other side of this place done to stimulate regional economies in the past 10 or 20 years? I would say they have done nothing. They've taken water out of our districts and they have not invested in infrastructure in regional Australia at all, whereas we've got a $100 billion pipeline that is going to see us deal with projects, both metro and regional.

We have hundreds of projects—city-shaping projects, congestion-busting projects—underway or in the planning phase. We've got NorthConnex and WestConnex in Sydney, the M1 in Brisbane and the Melbourne Airport Rail Link. Personally, I cannot wait for that to open, because there's nothing worse than trying to deal with peak-hour traffic between Flinders Street railway station and the airport in Melbourne. We've got METRONET in Perth, Bridgewater Bridge in Hobart and the North-South Corridor in Adelaide. They're our metro projects. They're going to address bottlenecks and traffic headaches, free up our roads and deal with urban congestion. We're also investing in commuter car parks to get people off our roads and onto public transport, which helps in trying to reduce carbon emissions from traffic. That should make the Greens very happy, and we are investing in it. That's what we're doing.

We are also investing in regional infrastructure. We have the Inland Rail being constructed as we speak, which is going to get freight between Melbourne and Brisbane more conveniently and more efficiently. We're going to invest in a hub-and-spoke model so that we have the connections to get our regional freight to intermodal transport hubs, getting it to port far more efficiently, which is going to stimulate our regional agricultural enterprises and make our economy more efficient at getting our export products to market.

Most importantly, in the current environment, we are investing in water infrastructure. Just this weekend, we announced money for Dungowan and Wyangala dams in New South Wales. We are committed to further significant water infrastructure to help our nation droughtproof itself for the future. This is not limited to dams. This is also about investigating water recycling, stormwater harvesting and modern technologies so that our towns have secure water supplies into the future. We are delivering the funding needed to fast-track the construction of dams and this critical water infrastructure.

However, we need the states to get on board. That is why the Prime Minister has written to the states, asking them to prioritise infrastructure projects so that we can get this money into our economy and start stimulating our economy and creating the jobs that we know are there, ready for the taking. We need to identify the skills shortages and get people into these jobs so they're off welfare. The best way for them to increase their household income is by getting off welfare and into a job. Infrastructure projects will create jobs. They will create the opportunities that people need and want across our economy, particularly in rural and regional Australia, and I'm very excited to be part of a government that is committed to delivering these projects across our economy for our communities and for the future economic security this will provide.