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

Yesterday, I tabled a non-conforming petition signed by more than 12,000 people in support of the Truro bypass project in South Australia. The Truro bypass is one of more than 400 infrastructure projects which have been put at risk by the Albanese government's 90-day review of the infrastructure investment pipeline—a review that is now at 171 days and counting. This is the review that has been delayed by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, because, like the rest of the Albanese government, Minister King has been distracted by Labor's failed, divisive, $450 million Voice referendum.

If you listen to the backgrounding provided by the minister's office, the 90-day review has found out that the cost of infrastructure projects being delivered by state governments, most of which are Labor state governments, has blown out. That will surprise no-one on this side of the chamber. It'll surprise no-one in Victoria, where the Andrews-now-Allen government has entered into a shady deal with the CFMMEU, which is resulting in massive blowouts in the cost of infrastructure projects. The government is threatening to cancel and delay more projects under the guise of this 171-day-and-counting infrastructure review. That's on top of the $9.6 billion of cuts and delays to infrastructure projects in last year's October budget.

The Truro bypass is a particularly important project. It's important to all of those who use the Sturt Highway, which is the main direct Sydney to Adelaide road freight route and the main highway from South Australia's Riverland to Adelaide. The Truro bypass is also an important first stage of a planned Greater Adelaide bypass, which would take freight trucks around the Adelaide Hills instead of funnelling them into the suburbs of Adelaide. I call on the government to release the report into infrastructure funding and give communities certainty over the future— (Time expired)