Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to follow on from my Western Australian colleague, who I know has very long experience of advocating for infrastructure for his state but also with being a part of the Rural and Regional Affairs committee, which has looked at many of these infrastructure projects over many years and has a long experience particularly with Inland Rail and the woes of that project over the last couple of years that we saw under the previous government.

When it comes to delivering infrastructure that Australians need and that communities want, we are listening to Australians. With the Infrastructure Australia Amendment (Independent Review) Bill 2023 we are ensuring that the days off rorts and money for mates are over. We are making sure that, when it comes to infrastructure, we return independence and merit based decision-making to delivering what Australians need.

This bill seeks to amend the Infrastructure Australia Act, and it's really important to talk to Australians about why we're taking these important steps. We want to make sure that a number of recommendations of the Independent Review into Infrastructure Australia, which was undertaken in 2022 and was something that we took to the election and committed to, are delivered. We committed to that review because under the former government Infrastructure Australia had suffered from a series of political appointments to the board —I think it's fair to say—and it wasn't being listened to when it came to what the future plan was for infrastructure across the country. We expect senators to come into this place and advocate for their state and members of the House of Representatives to advocate for their local communities. That is perfectly reasonable, and it's something I think all Queenslanders expect me to do when I come here. But we do need a national approach, a national plan and an independent assessment which delivers infrastructure to the places that need it the most, to the infrastructure projects that will deliver the most benefit to Australians, and we need to make sure those decisions are made in an independent way. That's why we wanted to review Infrastructure Australia, and that's what this bill is all about today.

The major recommendations from the review that this bill will implement include, as my colleagues have mentioned, introducing a new object to the Infrastructure Australia Act that identifies Infrastructure Australia's mandate as the Commonwealth government's independent adviser on nationally significant infrastructure planning and project prioritisation. We're also reforming the functions of Infrastructure Australia to be more focused, including developing a smaller and more targeted infrastructure priority list that prioritises nationally significant infrastructure proposals, as I said before, for consideration by Australian governments. This is really important because sometimes infrastructure goes across state lines, and we need to make sure that we are investing in the infrastructure that our nation needs, even if it crosses from one state into another, and sometimes across three states.

The bill will also help to reduce duplication with states and territories by requiring Infrastructure Australia to develop a nationally consistent framework for evaluating infrastructure proposals and by enabling Infrastructure Australia to endorse project evaluations conducted by states and territories. This is the part of the bill that I think is really crucial for productivity and development, creating jobs and getting infrastructure built in our country, because what we saw under the former government was a real reluctance to work with states and territories when it came to investing in infrastructure. In fact, when it came to infrastructure in Queensland, it was combative and driven by a desire from the former government to create conflict rather than build roads. What we saw was that projects that were favoured by Queenslanders and Queensland communities were overlooked by the former government. What we saw—and Cross River Rail is a really good example of this—was that something that was desperately needed by Queenslanders missed out time and time again on funding from the infrastructure portfolio of the previous government, just because they had some ideological difference with the Queensland government about how important it was. The Queensland government had to go it alone, had to find the funds to invest in that important project, and they're delivering Cross River Rail now.

What's really key is that when we work together with states and territories, as our government has sought to do, whether that's with a Liberal or Labor premier—it doesn't matter to us what state is represented by what party—we work together closely. We want to work really closely in particular with the Queensland government to deliver infrastructure priorities that Queenslanders need.

We're also making changes to governance arrangements, which can be best described as making sure that the board is fit for purpose and accountable. That's a really simple concept that eluded the previous government: making sure that the Infrastructure Australia board could actually make decisions and have the right expertise, skills, knowledge and geographical representation to make really good decisions. That's what we would expect, just as people in Queensland would expect their views to be represented and would expect the right people with the right skills to be on the board.

We're also making sure that the bill will empower Infrastructure Australia to carry out its role as an independent and expert adviser to the Australian government on nationally significant infrastructure needs, including in transport; in water, which we know is important; in communications, which are ever increasingly important in this period of our lives, when we spend a lot of time in front of screens and when a lot of services are delivered by digital communications; and in energy, delivering projects that deliver energy to our grid. We are seeking to do these things by introducing a new governance model to ensure that Infrastructure Australia has the eminence, authority and standing to be a national leader and coordinator among infrastructure advisory bodies.

We're taking these really important steps because we know how important it is to get this right. For a decade under the previous government we saw the stacking of the board of Infrastructure Australia, particularly by former minister Joyce when he was the minister for infrastructure. A board member of Infrastructure Australia at the time was a former Brisbane City councillor and vice-president of the Queensland Liberal National Party, yet they still couldn't agree to fund projects in Queensland. A third appointment to that board was an LNP candidate at the 2011 and 2015 Queensland state elections. They were pretty close mates with the minister at the time. It's really disappointing that we got to a point where not even the board of Infrastructure Australia—something so important for our country to get right—was safe from the former government's jobs for mates.

What is also incredibly disappointing for all Australians is that Infrastructure Australia was established with a board that was apolitical and expert but over time that was degraded and eroded. We saw the former government ignore infrastructure priority lists and instead invest in rort programs. 'Car park rorts' was one, as my colleague Senator Sterle was speaking about a moment ago. They also made announcements for projects but never actually provided the funding, or the funding was in the budget but there was no agreement with the state or territory government to deliver that project, so there was no pipeline for the project. That happened quite often in Queensland.

What was really disappointing was you would see a press release, a big announcement, about big spending on a road and then you would never hear about the project again because it wouldn't get built under the former government. We are really seeking to move away from this type of policy-making. We want to make sure that we can't have another car park rorts. Australians said to us at the election that they didn't want to see another car park rorts, another regional jobs investment program, or ARJIP, as we have heard it referred to, where a bunch of people get together and decide to give money to organisations or companies that they have associations with; that is not what we want to see.

What I am really proud of is that in the short time since we have come to government we are investing in Queensland infrastructure, particularly in infrastructure in Far North Queensland. The projects we have identified and we are investing in provide a shared community benefit, not just to one group of people or to someone who is a friend of the minister. What we're seeking to do is identify projects that have long-term, job-creating benefits to community, and there is no better example of that than the Cairns common user facility, a $300 million project that is going to invest in marine manufacturing in Cairns. I know many people have had the opportunity to visit the shipyards there. I'm proud of the work we have done to put the project on the map. That is the type of project we want to see independently assessed and supported because we know that a common user facility would actually provide the benefit to the community, not just in the short-term but for the long-term, to provide strong, secure, local manufacturing jobs. That is a project not supported by the former government. It is a project that would never be built if it wasn't for a Labor government. That $300 million and the thousands of manufacturing jobs wouldn't have happened if it weren't for a Labor government.

We are also funding Cairns water security with $105 million from the federal government, another project that, when it is built, will continue to deliver for many years to come. Something I'm really proud of is that we are investing $45 million in infrastructure in the Torres Strait because—I think it is safe to say—for decades this part of the world, being represented by the Liberal National Party in this place, refused to provide any funding to fix a single jetty or to fix any of the infrastructure needed to get really important supplies through to people living in the most remote parts of our country. In the Torres Strait, schoolchildren had to wade through crocodile-infested waters to get to the boat to take them to school—that is, from Prince of Wales Island to Thursday Island. I mean, that has been the state of play for decades yet nothing had ever come across the desk of the Liberal National Party that would make them want to fund it, so we are funding that project in conjunction with the state government because we know when we work together with state governments that we can deliver good infrastructure that not only creates jobs when it is being built but can also deliver long-term benefits to the community.

Finally, the last project I want to mention is the Captain Cook Highway in Far North Queensland because this is an upgrade of a really important road. It is the road I use to drive to get to work every single day when I am home in Far North Queensland. In 2019, the member for Leichhardt, a member of the former government, announced they would bust conjunction on the Captain Cook Highway. Under the former government, not a single piece of dirt was moved. Nothing was built under the former government. But under the Labor government getting to work, sitting down and working with the Queensland government, we are finally delivering upgrades to the Captain Cook Highway and to Smithfield. It will link up to the Smithfield bypass. Finally, all of those people that were promised this years ago and saw nothing happen under the former government will finally see this infrastructure delivered. That's the difference when you get down and you work with people, and you make sure that you are working with states and territories, providing independent infrastructure that communities need. That's what this bill is about and I commend the bill to the Senate.