Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I was going to the infrastructure needs across the community, the role of infrastructure in driving up productivity and, therefore, assisting with the heavy fiscal lifting, and this government's continual decisions to cut and delay investments not just in rural and regional roads but in community programs, such as Building Better Regions. It has taken them 12 months to get their community programs up and running. The guidelines have been released but still no money is flowing into these communities for much-needed social and economic development programs.

Importantly, in this type of environment, investing in the right type of infrastructure to get people and products where they need to go as quickly and as easily as possible is what we need to be seeing happen. Everywhere we look they've slashed funding in their budgets and put on hold for three months $120 billion of infrastructure pipeline projects—from roundabouts to port developments, highway and byway duplications and the airport rail link in Melbourne. What a joke! Melbourne is one of the best and most liveable cities in the world. It is a cosmopolitan metropolis. We are one of 10 out of the top 50 countries that don't have a rail link from the CBD to the airport.