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

I move the opposition amendment on sheet 1980:

(1) Schedule 1, item 22, page 12 (after line 25), after subsection 8(2), insert:

(2A) In appointing the Commissioners, the Minister must ensure that at least one of the Commissioners has a substantial connection to, or substantial experience in, a regional area through business, industry or community involvement.

The bill before the Senate today gets rid of the 12-member board of Infrastructure Australia and reduces it to three government appointed commissioners. State and territory governments have no say in who is now running the place. Minister King will hand-pick three commissioners, and none of those commissioners, under the bill before us without this amendment, would be required to have experience in delivering infrastructure across rural and regional Australia. Some examples of nation-building projects already in the infrastructure pipeline include sealing the Tanami Road across Western Australia and the Northern Territory, building infrastructure resilience in the north-west of our nation, sealing the Outback Way from Queensland to Western Australia and the Inland Rail from Melbourne to Brisbane. All of these projects require significant consultation and engagement with local communities.

What we've seen from this government—this city-centric Labor-Greens government—is that they don't like to get out in the regions, sit down and speak to our communities. We saw it with the water bill last week. Minister Plibersek was found wanting. The Senate inquiries, run by the Labor Party, refused to go out into places like Griffith, Deniliquin, Echuca, Mildura and Dirranbandi—all those communities that are going to be significantly and negatively impacted by the legislation that the Labor Party and the Greens put on. The big thing about leadership is you make the decision but you've got to be accountable and responsible for your decision-making. You have to face up to the people that your decisions hurt and you have to explain to them why you're doing it, but this government ducks for cover each and every time. That's why, for the opposition, for the Liberal and the National parties, it's incredibly important that at least one of those commissioners has an understanding, appreciation and experience of rural and regional Australia.