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

In respect of audit report No. 3 2024-25, Performance audit—Australian government commitment to the Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop East project: Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

This report that was released by the ANAO today was completed at the request of the Liberal and National parties. We asked the ANAO to examine the veracity of the $2.2 billion of Commonwealth taxpayer money—that includes taxpayers from Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania—heading to Jacinta Allan for Daniel Andrews's pet project, the Suburban Rail Loop, a project that has no cost-benefit analysis, that Victoria's own Auditor-General has serious concerns about and on which Infrastructure Australia has been asking the Victorian government for a business case for over 18 months. Did this stop Catherine King requesting $2.2 billion from the government's ERC—a lazy $2.2 billion to slap down to her political mates down in Victoria for a project that has so many question marks about it?

Everyone in parliament, particularly parties of government, understands that, as you head into the election, there are commitments you make to communities, to states and to different groups in order to get their support. That is what a democracy is all about. But you'd think, given that the Labor Party made such a song and dance about how you should make those commitments and who should be able to receive taxpayer funds from the Commonwealth, they would have put a bit more rigour around it. They didn't.

When this issue was raised time and time again by the Victorian opposition in the Victorian parliament and by us here and in estimates, what did Minister King do? She ran out and announced a merit review. She was going to run this project through a merit review. Everyone, including all the teals, gave a big sigh of relief: 'Thank goodness Catherine King has some integrity. She's going to put this $2.2 billion that looks like it's going to a dodgy project, because it is, and looks like it's being done for political reasons—to give the state Labor Party some Commonwealth government support to win an election in November 2022—through a merit review.' Well, guess what the ANAO report finds? Those who are listening in at home can look on their computers. Pages 22 and 23 show that the minister announced the merit review but didn't complete the merit review. She asked her department to stand down from the merit review once it became clear the project has no merit.

Why is the state Labor government in Victoria pursuing this project, which is being blown out and blown out, which has a dodgy assessment by Victoria's own Auditor-General and which failed to put forward a business case to the government 's own Infrastructure Australia, which Anthony Albanese was spruiking at last night's BCA dinner? Well, mate, don't promise $2.2 billion of Commonwealth taxpayer money on a project that refuses to submit its paperwork. I used to be a teacher. If kids didn't put their homework in, it was because they hadn't done it. They knew they weren't going to pass.

Here we are. I'll just quote from this. The ANAO is absolutely scathing about the response from the minister:

… the minister stated in a media interview that the department would conduct a 'merit review' on all election commitments over $5 million—

including the $2.2 billion for the Suburban Rail Loop. But:

There is no evidence of the approach the department planned to undertake for the merit review …

So this was a bit like what this Prime Minister's fond of doing: coming up with a press release to calm down a political firestorm in the media, only for you to find, when you lift the curtain on his promise, that there are no details. There was no merit review. It was done to quiet the horses. It's actually the Daniel Andrews tactic in politics: you make a statement based on your assumption that, in two months time, the voter will have forgotten what you said. This government is doing exactly the same thing. This is an absolute basket case of a process, and Minister King needs to do something about it.