Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

We have heard from the assistant minister, but we have not heard the assistant minister refute the claim in his own budget papers that there will be a $2 billion cut to infrastructure in Australia over this year and the next year. We did not hear the assistant minister try to refute it, because it is true—it is in their budget papers. We have seen the Deputy Prime Minister do his re-announcement tour around the country. He came to Tasmania and so did the assistant minister, but they did not bring any money with them. What they brought to Tasmania was cuts in their re-announcement tour.

For quite a few years we have heard from the Prime Minister, from Liberal members when they were candidates and from the current premier in Tasmania about the need to duplicate the Midland Highway. In the last couple of weeks the assistant minister has been down to Tasmania and had to confess that they would not be able to duplicate the Midland Highway for $400 million. Of course, we told them it was closer to $3 billion to duplicate the highway. They said they would duplicate it for $400 million, but Labor already had $500 million on the table for the Midland Highway. So there has actually been a cut of $100 million to safety improvements on the Midland Highway. We have heard a lot of rhetoric from the Liberal members about the need for safety upgrades to the Midland Highway, but they have ripped $100 million out of its infrastructure.

Not only that, but we also had invested $120 million in freight rail in Tasmania—a very important investment that I thought those opposite actually agreed with. Indeed, they said they had agreed with it in the past, as they did to all the other Labor commitments for infrastructure in Tasmania. But there is a cut to freight rail of $30 million this year and another $30 million next year—$60 million coming out of freight rail. We heard the secretary of the department in estimates admit this cut and say that they had taken this money and put it into irrigation in Tasmania—both are great projects, but both should be funded by the federal government. Tasmania needs that irrigation investment, but we also need the freight rail to get stuff out of the state. We need to put our produce on that rail and out of the state. It is another important investment that has gone missing. We are now up to $220 million coming out of the state of Tasmania for infrastructure to date.

The government did commit to some of the great projects that the member for Grayndler and I had agreements for in my electorate—the Tasmanian Highway ramps—but unfortunately the state Liberal government has delayed construction of that project. We announced $15 million, but it is six months behind schedule. A little work has started, which I am really pleased to see. Other projects are also behind schedule: the state Liberal government is behind schedule on the Huon Highway, $17½ million, the Domain Highway, $4 million, the Brooker Highway, $25.6 million. They are all great projects, but they are all behind schedule because of the federal and state Liberal governments. They are just the cuts to infrastructure in Tasmania.

We have also seen cuts in the budget to financial assistance grants to local government. This has been really important for local government. It is $925 billion over four years. Local governments have primarily been spending this money on roads. And primarily in regional areas, this cut to financial assistance grants will hurt. It is a cut that local government right across the country is angry about, and those opposite know it. They know that local government is not investing because of this cut of almost $1 billion over four years to local government right across the country.

In my home state of Tasmania, $18 million has been cut from local governments. That is $18 million that local government in Tasmania no longer has to spend on local roads in our state. Those opposite come in here and say, 'We have got our new bridges program,' but they have cut money from that this year; $60 million has been cut from the bridges program. They talk about doubling Roads to Recovery, a great project— (Time expired)

See this speech in context