Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am a bit of a ring-in here today for Mr Palmer, the member for Fairfax—

An opposition member: He was too busy.

He obviously retreated back home to lick his wounds after his not-too-successful stint on Saturday. That having been said, I am more than happy to speak about the Bruce Highway and the coalition's commitment more generally to infrastructure—

A government member: The Bruce Highway isn't in Perth; it is in Queensland.

I know that, but I am a member of the Australian parliament; I have an interest across Australia. I have a particular interest, as one would expect, in Western Australia, but I quite rightfully need to range across the full range of topics.

I was interested in the contribution from the previous speaker and the claim that Labor had just put pen to paper and not actually built. We are going to look at some of the Bruce Highway projects that indeed were completed by the federal Labor government during our last term: the duplication of the Douglas arterial road in Townsville; the upgrade to the southern approaches to Sarina; the construction of a new, higher bridge over the Isis River; the duplication of section B between Cooroy and Curra; the resurfacing of the Nambour bypass; the elimination of 63 notorious black spots; 12 new and upgraded rest stops; and the construction of 11 additional overtaking lanes. I look forward—as part of being on the northern Australia committee—to going up and admiring all these great works that were done under federal Labor. My colleague here will go through all the other projects that were not only planned but are also underway.

There has been an enormous amount of financial commitment made by Labor and an enormous range of infrastructure projects connected with the Bruce Highway that have been delivered—not just pen on paper but committed to early on in the term of government and then enacted. What we saw in the Howard years was a massive slashing of road funding, notwithstanding all of the language and—

A government member: How about the six lanes at Caboolture?

See this speech in context