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

The government recently announced $7.4 billion in cancelled infrastructure projects as a result of the 90-day infrastructure review that took 200 days. Fifty projects across Australia were cancelled, but the review conducted by former secretary Mike Mrdak recommended that 82 projects be cancelled. Minister King has refused to release the list of projects recommended for cancellation by Mr Mrdak's review. This raises serious questions as to whether the 50 projects the government has cancelled are actually the same projects that were recommended to be cancelled and whether there wasn't a little swiftie done in the minister's office between the projects recommended for cancellation by Mike Mrdak and those that were actually cancelled by the government. The fact that projects cancelled by the government include projects that were already under construction, which were meant to be out of scope of the independent review—projects such as the M7-M12 interchange in Western Sydney—adds further weight to the concerns of politicisation of the independent review's findings. Why won't the government be transparent and release the full list of projects recommended to be delivered?

We know that Mr Mrdak, in that review, did a full assessment of the full pipeline of projects not yet under construction. He recommended a number be cancelled. I know Mike Mrdak and I'm pretty sure he would've been quite specific about which projects needed to be cancelled. He recommended some projects be delayed and further work be undertaken before fully committing to them. He also recommended that some projects receive additional funding. Why won't the government release the lists that Mike Mrdak handed the minister so it can be transparent around the decisions taken by Minister King?