Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise today as a member of the great nation-building Labor government to speak in support of the Infrastructure Australia Bill 2008. The bill will establish Infrastructure Australia as the key advisory body for investment and planning in infrastructure. The bill will establish the body that will revolutionise the way infrastructure is addressed in this country. Infrastructure Australia will be charged with the development of a strategic blueprint for our nation’s infrastructure needs. It will establish a mechanism for ongoing and cooperative infrastructure dialogue between the Commonwealth, states and industry. Infrastructure Australia will identify and coordinate key infrastructure projects which are of high national importance.

The Rudd Labor government has recognised that a national strategic plan for infrastructure is well and truly needed in this country. Notably, for the first time since Federation, Australia now has an infrastructure minister. There will be a coordinated approach to infrastructure investment, and there will be cooperation between every Australian government as well as the private sector. For the first time in over a decade, the Australian people can expect a national plan for tackling infrastructure bottlenecks. Infrastructure Australia will create the networks to enhance future economic performance and raise national productivity.

The establishment of Infrastructure Australia is more evidence of the Rudd Labor government fulfilling its election commitments. At last there is a Prime Minister and a political party in Canberra that cares about the nation’s essential infrastructure and is committed to a constructive relationship between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments. Industry groups have been forced to accept the excuses of the former government in its negligence in addressing Australia’s infrastructure needs. Failure to address the infrastructure challenges facing our nation will threaten our economic strength and prosperity. It will endanger our industries and affect our quality of life.

Infrastructure Australia is about putting the prosperity of the whole nation on the agenda and not just sectional interests. In this regard it is relevant that my home state of Western Australia accounts for 36 per cent of Australia’s export earnings, which in large part are generated by the state’s mining and agricultural sectors. The Western Australian Premier, Mr Alan Carpenter, has noted that the last federal budget only allocated $317 per person nationally for infrastructure spending. In comparison, the WA state government allocated $2,154 per person for infrastructure spending in their last budget.

Madam Acting Deputy President Moore, you can see the problem. The Howard government set the scene for a massive crunch in WA’s capacity to continue to be the engine room of Australia’s economic growth. Without the funds to provide essential public infrastructure and services to underpin private investment, growth of the production capacity of the state’s mining sector, and therefore of economic development, will inevitably be slower. Furthermore, we have the ludicrous situation where WA is projected to receive only 10.3 per cent of AusLink National Network funding despite its 22 per cent share of roads in the network.

Let me move on to raise the issue of WA’s Kimberley region as further illustration of essential need for a body such as Infrastructure Australia. This sparsely populated and underdeveloped region of WA is poised on the brink of massive economic development in respect of energy, minerals and agricultural production. The region has an export earnings potential that could rival the Pilbara. However, to make things happen it will require large private and public investment in necessary infrastructure on a scale that will only be achieved by the Commonwealth and state governments working together alongside the private sector.

We are already experiencing difficulties in keeping up with the need to expand and improve port, road, education, hospital and housing infrastructure in the region. As I mentioned earlier, for the last decade, the federal government has made a very marginal contribution to infrastructure in Western Australia, despite receiving record revenue from the resources boom in WA. Even Mr Barry Haase, the member for Kalgoorlie, admitted there was nothing for Kalgoorlie in the final federal Howard budget.

I would also like to make comment at this time on some of the disappointing and ill-informed remarks by the member for Kalgoorlie when he spoke on this bill. In his speech in the other place on 12 March 2008, he said:

I put to you that they—

being Labor—

are simply going to re-badge AusLink 1 and 2 ...

He then went on to say that Labor ‘has been left a very solid heritage’ and that we should give credit where ‘credit is due’. I do not believe the government or the people of Australia will have any problems in giving credit where credit is due for the current state of infrastructure in Australia. The member for Kalgoorlie should also be aware that Infrastructure Australia is not a re-badging of AusLink. Infrastructure Australia is in fact part of a comprehensive strategy by this government to move on from the disastrous Howard years in infrastructure.

Considering that a majority of Western Australia’s mining boom occurs within his own electorate, Mr Haase may want to consider that, whilst he was in government, unfortunately he wasted time and opportunity by not obtaining infrastructure projects for his electorate. The member for Kalgoorlie also stated:

Is this new government seriously condemning the state Labor government transport ministers?

Through you, Madam Acting Deputy President: no, Mr Haase, we are clearly condemning the former federal government, who did not show leadership and did not plan for the future. Perhaps if the member for Kalgoorlie had been a National instead of a Liberal, he could have at least gotten infrastructure funding for the odd cheese factory in his electorate as part of the ‘regional rorts’ program. Mr Haase concludes with an interesting statement:

I wonder how the facade has been maintained for even this long.

The Howard facade on infrastructure investment and planning in this country did not last. With little or no infrastructure funding in WA to maintain the mining boom, Mr Howard was killing the nation’s golden goose and hurting those communities. The Rudd Labor government will address the void left by the Howard government in national infrastructure. By coordinating our approach to infrastructure investment, we will make sure that funding flows to the right projects and towards the right outcomes for this nation.