Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

There has been a rolling crisis for the past almost year now in regional areas, as there has been uncertainty about the continuation of Rex Airlines. This is an incredibly important service for people in regional Australia. The distances that are involved out there require that there be access to aviation services. If there isn't access to aviation services for people who live in these country towns, they can't go to hospitals, they can't do business and they can't visit friends and family elsewhere. There's no way driving or other options are an alternative. They have to have access to planes.

We have been thankful that the government has ensured that these services have continued since Rex Airlines went into receivership. The issue here is that nothing much seems to have happened apart from that. There is still a cloud hanging over aviation services in regional Australia because there is no long-term plan for these services that people can see, touch and be confident in. It's great that the planes are still flying, that the services are still on. But people who want to make plans to move to, invest in, or expand their business into a country town actually need to know that these types of services will be there for the long term. We don't have that confidence at the moment.

We don't have that confidence because this minister has not been able to present a proper plan to the Australian people. The minister for infrastructure has not properly engaged with the broader aviation sector here to formulate a plan that would deliver solutions and certainty for people in regional Australia. What we are discussing here is the failure of the government, the failure of the minister, to release even the basics of the documentation around what they're doing and what discussions they've had in regard to the future of Rex Airlines. Maybe the reason the government is hiding details here is that there's not much to produce. The most embarrassing thing for the government would be to have to table what would be almost nothing. From the outside it would seem that the government has not done much more than that.

I myself have been in discussion with aviation operators. Indeed, I had a discussion with some just yesterday in my office. They are at a complete loss to understand why the government won't engage with them and why they aren't presenting a plan that would be good for the aviation sector, good for regional Australians and good for the country. They can't even talk to the minister. They can't even get a meeting with the minister of this government to discuss these important matters. The people I met with have some potential solutions. From this position it's hard for me to judge whether their proposals are good, bad or indifferent. But I can't believe that we have a minister for transport who has one of the most important issues on her desk right now—the continuation of regional services—and she won't even meet with senior players in the aviation sector that could potentially provide a solution and certainty for people in regional Australia. That's the only reason we could conclude the government is hiding these documents, hiding this information, from us. It is because, perhaps, the minister has not done much and has not done the basic work that any competent minister would do in stakeholder management—to get around and communicate with everybody in this area and at least have the best information at hand.

The other problem here is that, because I think not much has been done, the government is now floating thought bubbles as a substitute for action on the aviation sector. The government is now effectively trying to kick the can down the road on this matter, beyond the election, which we can all smell in the air and which is coming any time soon. You can tell that the story this week that somehow the government was going to potentially buy or take over Rex Airlines and apparently create a new national airline network was cooked up by some media adviser to get them through the next few weeks. There was no detail or substance to it. There's no detailed corporate plan about how this would work. There's certainly no money put aside for this. It wasn't even a media release; it was a leak to the newspapers to get them through the next few months without having to take tough questions from regional Australians about what their plans are for the future. That's just not good enough for people out there who rely on these services, and more should have been done by now to put us in a better position.

Now, unfortunately, those tough questions, those conversations that should have been happening, will probably have to wait until after the election. Hopefully, there will be a change of government. I've got no doubt that my good friend and leader here, Senator McKenzie, will engage with the sector. I know she's been engaging with the sector, as she mentioned earlier. She will be talking to all players and trying to come up with a solution to a difficult problem, and will come up with a solution that works for everybody.

It is also obstructive that, on this motion, we have the government hiding information about not just our airline networks but also our roads. Indeed, one of the most important roads in the country—and perhaps the road that's in the most crisis right now—is the Bruce Highway. I live not far from the Bruce Highway, in central Queensland, and I use it all the time. I have never seen it in a more shocking state than in the last few years. It has never exactly been a great road. It has always been somewhat described, in a love-hate way, as a goat track, but it gives goat tracks a bad name now, with the potholes that are emerging and the lack of maintenance that seems to occur. It is very hard to understand exactly why that has happened. As I said, it has gotten worse. It's not just that we're not getting the upgrades or the overtaking lanes and these things, which I know cost a lot of money; it's that we can't seem to keep the road in the state which it had been in for many years, including all the years I had driven on it. Now, you've got situations where large holes in the road exist or persist for weeks, sometimes even a month or more, and they are incredibly dangerous. We have had a spate of tragic fatalities on this road over the past couple of years and the people of regional Queensland simply deserve better. It should be one of the most important roads in our country, effectively linking the whole of coastal Queensland, yet it is a road that constantly seems to get ignored and lacks any kind of proper plan for the future.

We did have a plan. When Tony Abbott came to office in 2013, we had a $10 billion plan for the Bruce Highway. It has delivered enormous benefits and upgrades in some areas, like the Mackay Ring Road—a fantastic project that was completed under the plan—and like the Yeppen South Floodplain Upgrade Project, which now keeps Rocky open when it floods and was used not long after the road was opened. There's now the Rocky Ring Road as well, which this government tried to cut. One of its first actions in its first budget was deferring the funding for the Rocky Ring Road to the never-never. They left the people of Central Queensland high and dry, despite the government committing to do it. Albanese's infrastructure minister said it would be safe under him, then he came into government and cut the rug out from under us. We had to bring our own convoy to Canberra and had to have a rally in Rocky. Eventually, we got that funding restored, and it's up and running now.

Now, again, the government is hiding details from us. We've asked them a very simple question: where is the funding profile? They announced the other day that they were going to put $7 billion into the Bruce Highway. There was, again—like the Rex Airlines situation—no detail and no plan. It was just a number, and they thought that would get them through. Days after that announcement, minister and senator, Katy Gallagher, was asked on the 7.30 Report where that money was. The minister said:

Well, I think the funding will be coming outside of those forward estimates years, because it's a long-term project.

We haven't had any more information than that. We've subsequently learned that the government has had no formal discussions with the Queensland government about when this money will be released or provided—and the Queensland government is a co-funder of this road and will be responsible for delivering the upgrades.

Again, this just seems to be a total thought bubble to try and get the Labor Party through the election and to give them something to talk about when they're in regional Queensland that will try and pull the wool over peoples' eyes once again. Who knows if this $7 billion was just a figure? It doesn't seem to appear in any budget papers or anything. There have certainly been no contracts written and no agreements signed by the Queensland government.

Who knows whether we'll get another Rocky Ring Road on the Bruce Highway funding after an election? Who knows whether if the Labor Party are re-elected that they won't, in their first budget, say: 'Whoops. We don't have that $7 billion anymore. You can't have it.' It would be just like what they did with the Rocky Ring Road. You just can't trust them. You couldn't trust them last time and you can't trust them this time. Elect a government that will have a real plan for infrastructure.