Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

And what a mess we did inherit in the infrastructure program. It's an infrastructure program too full of colour-codes in their spreadsheets to actually be delivered, having, as I said, blown out from 150 to almost 800 projects.

Let's just remember a couple of the highlights of the Liberal and National parties' infrastructure program. Remember the Inland Rail, which we were promised was going to cost $9.3 billion but which has now blown out to approximately $31 billion, with the potential for costs to rise even further? How about the Urban Congestion Fund, full of imaginary car parks in marginal seats? These were projects that were grossly underfunded and, in some cases, committed without land even being available. The former Treasurer, who's no longer with us, committed $260 million to remove a level crossing next to his own electorate without telling the state government that runs the train line. The funding was also hundreds of millions of dollars short of the actual funding required to do the job.

We are adults. We are an adult government and we're going to have an infrastructure program that can be delivered, rather than mythical— (Time expired)