Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Well, yesterday may have been budget day, but I must say it felt more like groundhog day, because this particular show, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government, is now in its eighth year and, sadly, the acts are getting a little tired; the lines are starting to wear pretty thin. We may have had a revolving door of treasurers and prime ministers, but the song sheet hasn't changed: talk, talk, talk and promise, promise, promise, showing an announcement over here and a few dollars over there, with commitments made and promises dealt up. But where is the delivery? Where are the lasting legacies of achievements left behind, for all of the glitz and glamour? After eight years, is there anything concrete to show after the curtain comes down? Sadly, in this space, this government has a pretty consistent track record. It's a well-worn path they've trodden for the past eight years: overpromise and underdeliver. They like to make big, flashy, showy announcements, but, when it comes to the follow-through, they're nowhere to be seen.

In fact, they like announcing things so much they don't do it just once. They don't make an announcement or a commitment just once. No, they do it once, they do it twice and they do it again and again, over and over—the same announcement of the same commitment for the same project, year in, year out, again and again. But do they actually deliver on their commitments? No. With each reheated reannouncement, the project time lines get pushed further out and the dollars are pushed further into the out years—so far out, in fact, that it's basically a permanent commitment to the never-never.

The reality is that, when it comes to infrastructure announcements in particular, this government and this Prime Minister simply can't be believed, because, no matter what allocation of funds is provided in these and other bills, and no matter what the Treasury briefs out in the newspaper drops, we know they will fail on delivery. That truth is available for everyone to see in black and white in the budget papers and MYEFO. What we can see from those documents is that the Morrison government averages an infrastructure underspend of $1.2 billion a year. In fact, in the last financial year, they underspent on their promises by $1.7 billion. So forgive me for showing some scepticism when the government decided to drop their road funding commitments to Tasmania's local papers at start of the week.

The headline looked good. It sounded like the government were doing something, but scratch the surface ever so slightly and you find the truth: another prebudget infrastructure nonannouncement by the Morrison Liberal government following a now familiar pattern after eight years of this government—promise big, fail to deliver. In fact, in a remarkably brazen attempt to pretend they were actually delivering for Tasmania, the Morrison Liberal government have reheated and re-announced commitments to roads in Tasmania that they made in their first term in office. They've certainly got some gumption, because they actually attempt to pass off their failure to deliver after eight years in office as a brand-new promise, backed in with new money. But it's all a mirage—a fraud, in fact—perpetrated on the people of my home state by a Prime Minister best known for his marketing spin.

Talk, talk, talk is all we ever get from Mr Morrison. That's all with ever hear from the Prime Minister, but what has he actually delivered for Tasmania? Have we seen the progress on the Bridgewater Bridge? What about the much-hyped new bridge across the Tamar? Remember that? What about the River Derwent ferry service, the Hobart underground bus mall, the fix for the Cooee Crawl and the much-promised and greatly needed fix for notorious sections of the Bass Highway from Marrawah to Wynyard and all the way to Launceston? What's happening to the transit corridor through Hobart's northern suburbs? Has a single cent been spent from the Urban Congestion Fund to tackle Hobart's worsening gridlock? No. Where is the extra lane on the Southern Outlet?

They finally dug a hole at the Hobart Airport roundabout, a project that was supposed to be finished by now. Haven't they stuffed that up? What a bungle. Speaking of bungles, they ripped money out of Tasmania's rail freight funding to pay for the Burnie Port shiploader, and even then they didn't fund it properly. They have now had to tip more in because they stuffed it up the first time, yet astonishingly they have once again tried to pass that stuff up off as a new commitment for Burnie—extraordinary! People on Tasmania's north-west coast will believe it when they see it, because all we ever get from this government and from this Prime Minister is talk, talk, talk. That's all we hear. The Cradle Mountain master plan—they make a promise and then it's delayed—is another stuff-up. They can't even pretend to make a much-needed commitment towards the Arthur Highway or the Tasman Highway from Sorell to Scottsdale. For some reason, the Tasman Peninsula and the east coast of Tasmania have fallen off the map in the eyes of the Morrison Liberal government.

Yes, Mr Morrison and his government like to talk a big infrastructure game, but when you look at the detail their promises are nothing more than old announcements reheated like a dodgy chicken burger that's been sitting in the bain-marie. There's no reason to think announcements made last night or briefed out in days gone by will be any different to the countless others that have fallen by the wayside. What Tasmanians need is real infrastructure delivery that boosts productivity, reduces congestion and improves safety across our road network. That isn't what we're getting from the Morrison government, but it would be delivered by Labor.

Labor are pleased the economy is recovering from COVID, but we need to ask: how good could Australia's recovery be? The economic situation we find ourselves in is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Australians, and we don't want to miss a single opportunity. That's why we can't afford more of the repeated failures of this government. Australians need government to seize the day, make bold decisions and then deliver on them. That's why an Albanese Labor government would deliver national reconstruction that squarely focuses on jobs—not just any jobs but good, secure jobs that working families can rely on, underpinned by fair-paying conditions and supported by better and cheaper childcare that working families can depend on.

An Albanese Labor government would make commitments that we'd actually deliver on. We'd announce, and then we'd follow through—a concept that seems quite alien to the Morrison Liberal government—because we want Australia to be a country that makes things and supports local jobs, including in manufacturing. Under an Albanese Labor government, nobody will be held back; nobody will be left behind. Under an Albanese Labor government, budget day will be a day when Australians can finally look to their government to deliver on their promises—not like this government and their budgets, which are just all talk, talk, talk and no delivery.