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

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Minister Watt. After 200 days of the Albanese government's so-called short, sharp 90-day review, Labor has taken the axe to 50 major infrastructure projects and thrown another 252 projects into uncertainty. Major project cancelled by Labor include the M7 to M12 Interchange in New South Wales, the Frankston to Baxter rail upgrade in Victoria and the Mooloolah River Interchange in Queensland as well as projects to remove heavy vehicles from the main streets of Hahndorf and Pinjarra. Minister, with the government swinging the axe today on these important projects, what is the exact dollar figure of the cuts to the infrastructure investment pipeline across each year of the forward estimates?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I could give a short answer, and the answer would be zero because the government has maintained every single dollar of the $120 billion that was contained in the infrastructure investment program we inherited from the coalition. Of course, the problem is that that infrastructure, which was developed by Senator McKenzie and her colleagues with their colour-coded spreadsheets, had blown out by $33 billion. It's an infrastructure program that had blown out from 150 projects to over 800 projects, so it's completely unable to be delivered—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie!

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

no funding, no skilled labour, in some cases no business plans and certainly no hope whatsoever of being delivered. It has been interesting this week to hear the different messages coming out of the Liberals and the Nationals because most of the time we hear from the Liberals that we need to cut spending to bring inflation under control, but on the other hand we have the Nationals and some of the Liberals saying, 'Oh no, spend my money, spend more money on infrastructure.' This morning, for instance, Senator Bragg, who we know is auditioning for the role of shadow assistant Treasurer along with half of the other backbench, tweeted that Australian inflation is worse than other economies because Labor isn't running a contractionary budget.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Watt, I will draw you back to Senator McKenzie's question.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bragg and his colleagues want a contractionary budget, Senator McKenzie and her colleagues want us to spend more money on infrastructure—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, on a point of order?

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

It's on direct relevance. You also instructed the minister back to the forward estimates profiling, and I would appreciate him—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, to be fair, I directed the minister to the whole of your question. I will remind him once again.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the point of order, I would simply observe that Senator McKenzie's question did go to budget matters.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, as you would have heard, I completely addressed your point of order. Minister Watt, I draw you back to the question.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I said, the government is preserving every single dollar of the $120 billion infrastructure program that we inherited. What we're doing in the process is delivering more money for a number of states to deliver more infrastructure. In my home state of Queensland, for example, we are providing more than $2 billion of extra funding for infrastructure projects, compared to what was already provided. That will allow us to deliver a number of projects that didn't have the funding that the coalition pretended to provide.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, first supplementary?

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

Labor has been dragged kicking and screaming to reveal the full list of projects to be axed, but they are still failing to hand over the list of delayed projects, leaving local councils, communities, contractors and construction workers in the dark on whether their projects will go ahead. When will you reveal the details of what your cuts mean to project timeframes? Or will these, like the 50 projects that got the axe, mean more broken promises? You didn't answer the forward estimates question. (Time expired)

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, I'm not sure what you were doing at around 10 o'clock this morning, but at 10 o'clock this morning Catherine King, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, delivered a press conference where she actually went through this entire issue in detail: the projects that are proceeding, the projects that are being delayed and the projects that have no hope whatsoever of being delivered. As I said, just to take Queensland as one example, we are providing more than $2 billion extra funding in infrastructure to deliver a range of projects—the Brisbane to the Gold Coast rail and the Rockhampton ring road, which I know Senator Canavan has been very exercised about—right across Queensland. A range of projects right across Australia can now actually proceed because the Albanese government has done the hard work of looking at each of those projects and working out what can be delivered, what there is funding for, what there is a business case for and which ones, in contrast, had no hope ever of being delivered and were only lines on a press release. That's what we used to get from the National Party in an infrastructure program, not real funding and real projects. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, second supplementary?

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

The Albanese government's Rudd-era policy of reducing federal funding from 80-20 to 50-50 and to an arbitrary minimum value of half a billion dollars will mean an immediate and devastating cut for projects across regional Australia. Minister, with road fatalities rising and freight demand ever increasing, why are you cutting infrastructure funding for regional Australia by 30 per cent and making it next to impossible for future projects in the regions to be funded?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, Senator McKenzie, just because you say it doesn't mean it's true. Again, to give you one example from Queensland, take the Bruce Highway, the backbone of our state. What had been promised under your government was close to $10 billion in funding for the Bruce Highway. How much is being committed by the Albanese government? About $10 billion, exactly the same amount of money. That is the case right across the country. Even with this change towards 50-50 funding, which has traditionally applied in relation to federal funding of infrastructure projects—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator McKenzie!

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

what that means is the Bruce Highway has exactly the same amount of money provided for it as it did yesterday, as it did last year and as it did the year before. That is replicated across so many other states. The Albanese government is delivering infrastructure funding—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister Watt, please resume your seat. Senator McKenzie, I called you, and you continued to interject. You are being disrespectful. I'm asking for silence as the minister responds to your question.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To take Queensland as an example, I know that there are projects proceeding under our plans for Cairns, for Cape York, for Normanton, for Burketown, for Townsville and for Rockhampton. They are regional Queensland, and they are getting the funding they need. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Scarr, I have also called you a number of times today, and your constant interjections are also disorderly. I'd ask you to stop.