Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With regard to this report on Infrastructure Australia and infrastructure funding for Tasmania, can I say: we in Tasmania have been dudded. We have been dudded; we have been diddled; we have missed out totally. We have diddly-squat. It is not on; it is not fair; it is not right. The approach by the Gillard Labor government has been disgraceful.

They delivered a budget last year where there was $22 billion of funding for road, rail and port upgrade in and around Australia. How much money came to Tasmania out of that fund? Not one dollar. That is not good enough. We are being dudded in Tasmania because of the lack of advocacy, the lack of representation, the lack of fighting for Tasmania. It is not on. It is not good enough. I put the Labor representatives from Tasmania, state and federal, on notice: you must try harder. Members of the federal Labor government and the state Labor government must try harder. The state Labor government should hang their heads in shame. Did they put in an application to Infrastructure Australia for funding? Did they, Senator Bushby? He is shaking his head and he knows that they did not. Senator Carol Brown is across the chamber, listening in, and she knows the failure and the dismal performance of the state Labor government in terms of their lack of action.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shame!

Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is absolutely shameful behaviour, as Senator Macdonald has indicated and as we all know. They should have put in an application for a $150 million upgrade to Bell Bay Port in Northern Tasmania. It was there. It was ready to go. Unfortunately, the former Labor government, before the election, did not even put in an application. It is not good enough. Let me just say on the record that we made the views of the Tasmania Liberal Senate team—with the strong support of Steve Titmus, the federal Liberal candidate for Bass—very clear before the election. We strongly argued in favour of that application for the Bell Bay Port upgrade. It would do wonders for Northern Tasmania. We need that support. Jobs are in short supply in Northern Tasmania and across the state at the moment. I will talk about the north-east in a minute, but I just want to say that that is not good enough.

During the election campaign we also indicated our strong support for the gas rollout. We need access to gas, like our neighbours on the mainland have. We need that access. It is an improper, inappropriate and shameful display and lack of action by the state Labor government and our federal Labor government that we have not had that access. The funding is there. Infrastructure Australia have the money. An application must be put in so that we can take hold of that opportunity and grasp with both hands this wonderful opportunity. Tasmania deserves its fair share.

I mentioned the north-east. It is so tough for them at the moment. In and around Scottsdale they have had some very hard knocks, including more in the last couple of weeks. Gunns announced that the Scottsdale sawmill would close in the next few months. We know that means that over 100 jobs will go. Earlier this week, I indicated strong support for the Musselroe Bay wind farm. We have in fact been arguing for that for years, but in recent months we finally got the government to act and provide legislative support for the renewable energy certificate so that we can get action up there. But, if we got some Infrastructure Australia funds for the north-east, I would be right behind Dorset Council if they made recommendations for an application for funding for some road upgrades. They are always keen for some upgrades to their roads in the north-east. They deserve it and they need it. Mayor Barry Jarvis is leading Dorset Council. He is doing a good job. I am looking forward to meeting with him and the council, along with Sophie Mirabella, the shadow minister for innovation industry and science, on 5 November when we visit Scottsdale.

In terms of infrastructure upgrade, the defence facility at Scottsdale needs to take hold of the opportunity that is going to be available to it. There is an upgrade. We have been arguing for it for years. The government has finally listened and is now undergoing an upgrade in and around Scottsdale. That is very good news, and congratulations to all those who are working in the facility. That is great. We have lobbied and lobbied on that for years. The government has finally listened and is doing the upgrade. But there are more opportunities there, so ‘watch this space’ with respect to a defence facility.

Tasmania deserves its fair share. We have been dudded. We have been diddled. We have missed out big time, but we will fight. The Tasmanian Liberal Senate team will fight and the state Liberals will fight. We ask all federal and state members to fight for our fair share from Infrastructure Australia.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Auditor-General has conducted a performance audit of Infrastructure Australia, particularly the conduct of Infrastructure Australia in the first national infrastructure audit and development of the infrastructure priority list. As the Auditor-General points out, the purpose of Infrastructure Australia is to assess major infrastructure projects that are being talked about or suggested within our nation. Quite clearly, it is the role of Infrastructure Australia to carefully assess Australia’s infrastructure needs and then to prioritise them into what might appropriately be a subject for further government investigation and eventually investment of public monies.

Regrettably, and this is noted by the Auditor-General, a number of projects that are being developed in Australia at the moment constitute election promises from the 2007 and 2010 elections, which will not be going to Infrastructure Australia. They are projects hatched in the back rooms of the Labor Party somewhere around Australia, and they come forward without a great deal of assessment or figuring or cost-benefit analysis. They are simply thrust upon the Australian public as something the public will have to pay for, even though the work Infrastructure Australia is supposed to do with all major infrastructure projects has not been done.

Perhaps the most significant infrastructure project in Australia in recent times is a proposal to spend $43 billion not of Senator Conroy’s money, not of Ms Gillard’s money, but of Australian taxpayers’ money. Forty-three billion dollars is a huge spend in anyone’s language. It even makes the money wasted on the pink batts scheme pale into insignificance. It even makes the $16 billion wasted—much of it wasted—on the Julia Gillard memorial school halls program pale into insignificance.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We’re not going to talk about the Bruce Highway, are we?

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here we have a proposal to spend $43 billion of taxpayers’ money—and I emphasise that. It is not Senator McLucas’s money. If it were Senator McLucas’s money, you could be assured that the first thing she would do is get a cost-benefit analysis done. She would insist that, if she were investing $43 billion, she knew she would get a return on her investment. Very few people currently in this chamber will be alive in 30 or 40 years down the track when, as the implementation study says, you might get a return—but absolutely nobody believes that.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McLucas interjecting—

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear Senator McLucas saying a lot, and no doubt she will speak after me on this. If it were her money, she would not spend $43, let alone $43 billion, unless she knew she was going to get a return for that $43 billion. It is Infrastructure Australia’s job to look at these proposals and ask questions. Is it a good proposal? Is it worth the investment? Should it take priority over hospitals? Should it take priority over roads? Should it take priority over investment in our natural resources? Infrastructure Australia are there to ask questions such as these, but were they asked to look at Australia’s biggest investment in infrastructure in decades? No, they were not. They were particularly excluded from the investigation of this major investment in infrastructure, and you can understand why. It is because this is the Labor Party’s 25th iteration, or thereabouts, of some form of policy on the NBN.

Senator Conroy has been flapping around in the dark since before the 2007 election, when was trying to get some sort of policy that he could go to an election with and offer to the Australian public. But things have changed, and we have got to this situation now where, almost sight unseen and with no cost-benefit analysis done, we are going ahead to satisfy the political egos of Senator Conroy and Ms Gillard—and I say that without wanting to be personally unkind to them—by saying that they are producing a National Broadband Network.

Everybody in Australia wants a national broadband network. We already had the rudiments of it, or more than rudiments of it—a number of companies already had the job partly done. Certainly it needed government investment—and Senator Conroy first told us that he would be able to do it for $4.7 billion. We needed a proposal, which the previous coalition government had actually put in place, to ensure that there was a national network that complemented the existing network and provided fast broadband to those parts of Australia that did not then have it. That was the coalition’s policy, and it was actually in place.

Senator Conroy became the minister, illegally cancelled the contract and then put up his proposal of $4.7 billion to assist Telstra to expand their network. He then spent $20 million on some feasibility studies, had a fight with Telstra and worked out that he could not do anything. So he cancelled that and—almost, it seems, in a fit of pique—said, ‘If we can’t get our way with Telstra and do it for $4.7 billion, we will spend $43 billion of taxpayers’ money in duplicating, and triplicating in part, a system that is already there.’ As the Auditor-General points out in several documents, there is a system now in Tasmania. Senator Conroy keeps talking about it. I think Senator Barnett mentioned it in question time today. Senator Barnett, there are, from memory, 500 connections active—

Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, that’s right.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

for a $37 million spend so far. Boy oh boy, that is good investment!

Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are 262 active.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are 262 active. Sorry; I gave Senator Conroy the benefit of a few hundred extra. But it is not a total spend of $37 million; that is just the contract. Senator Conroy refused to tell us what has already been spent. We worked out at estimates that those people who have signed up have done so because they are not being charged—it is being given away for free.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You’re making this up.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not making this up, Senator McLucas. Have a look at the estimates Hansard. The government is not getting a cent in returns from the investment in Tasmania because NBN Co. is giving away for free its part of the $43 billion investment. It is typical of Labor Party business economics that you spend all this money, give the service away for free and then have the hide to tell Australians that the government going to make a profit out of this and give a return on the investment of $43 billion.

It has become clearer and clearer as we ask questions about the NBN at estimates and other committees that the government will not get any return at all on their investment in Tasmania until, at the very earliest, July next year—another nine months away. Until then, generous old NBN Co, which is the Australian taxpayer, is simply giving away its investment for zero return. It is no wonder that those few people who have signed up to this NBN Co. in Tasmania have done so—they are not being charged for it. They are paying the internet service provider a fee, but they are not paying NBN Co. anything for the fibre rollout. That is a disgrace of the first order. I am sure that the Auditor-General in future reports will continue to look at this and he will report unfavourably on how you can spend that sort of money in Tasmania yet give away your commercial expertise and the network for no return at all. (Time expired)