Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Kennedy for bringing this issue to the chamber today. It is something that is of great importance to many of us, certainly on this side of the House. The member for Lyne is absolutely correct when he says that this is about working together with government, whether you are an Independent member or even an opposition member, to engage with what we mean when we talk about nation building. The member for Kennedy raised some very interesting points about the priority of some projects. Understand, though, that we are in a situation with the global financial crisis that fell on countries across the world and presented challenges for us as a country to look at ways to give immediate stimulus and plan and invest our way out of the crisis.

I know the member for Kennedy is very passionate about his electorate and his part of Australia, North Queensland. Being a Queenslander myself, I well remember the member for Kennedy when he was in the state parliament. He would not remember but I probably met him over 20 years ago on a number of occasions and I was very impressed with his passion for his electorate. The only thing I disagree with him on at that level is the Bjelke-Petersen era. While things may have been built, our parliamentary secretary did say that there were things that were destroyed. The reality was that social infrastructure did not progress very well at that particular time and, while we can talk about the issues around street marching, demonstrations, people congregating and being arrested, there were also a whole range of other issues. But the member for Kennedy is right when he says that nation building and the infrastructure, priorities and jobs that will come out of this particular investment are very important.

I am now the fourth person that is going to speak about Bradfield. I, like the member for Lyne, also saw the picture of Bradfield this morning in that meeting. It was very impressive. I think there were actually 13,000 cars in New South Wales at that time and they could all cross the bridge in 20 minutes. Anyway, it was something like that. It is fascinating when you look at how long ago that project was proposed and there was Bradfield in his infinite wisdom; the man was planning mad and government schemes at the time engaged his level of vision.

The Bradfield scheme in North Queensland is one scheme that has not got up yet. It is a project that I have always been very passionate about. I do know that in Queensland when the water crisis was emerging for the south-east they did look at the figures. In terms of construction it was a big investment, and it could not be done. It was actually about the ongoing recurrent costs but I think the member for Kennedy is right when he talks about prioritising projects and looking at job centres. The fact is that if you were to build the Bradfield scheme in North Queensland simply to service the south-east, the numbers do not add up, but building communities where water is in situ is probably one of the options that we could look at in future in terms of a brilliant scheme.

Bradfield certainly built the Story Bridge and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Another little bit of trivia is about the Indooroopilly Bridge. It was built probably some 70 years ago now and I suspect that it was actually a private cooperative that built the bridge. The bridge is a swing bridge with large cables. Members who know the bridge may not be aware that the actual cables that lower the spans of the bridge came from the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Bradfield is in everything that we see and everything that we do. Certainly, his vision for nation building was supported by the governments of the day.

I quite often talk about the electorate of Forde and our lack of infrastructure, so I am pleased about the nation building projects that we are putting around the country and the way that they will affect my electorate. When I say my electorate, I am also talking about the region—the Gold Coast hinterland. I also have by default some responsibility for what happens on the Gold Coast. I do know that, as a member of the public, I did not understand why areas and regions like the Gold Coast that everyone thought was doing so well were so severely lacking in infrastructure.

Recently a number of announcements have been made. I am proud to say that I had a lot of negotiation and discussion with the minister to do with the building of the Carrara Stadium. Whether you are an AFL fan or not is not the issue, it is about the jobs created not only in the construction but in the ongoing boost to that community. There is the industry itself and the generation of not only sporting tourism but all the services that will go firstly to the construction and rollout of that project and then will support ongoing benefits to the coast.

The Gold Coast is a nightmare when you look at transport. Public transport is almost non-existent and the roads are jammed. The announcement of light rail for the Gold Coast again creates many jobs in its development. It will be a billion-dollar project by the time it is finished but, essentially, it will take 40,000 cars off the road. When we talk about the impact of that on climate change along with those other benefits then it really is something that a project not only creates jobs with the ongoing positive effect on the economy but also achieves some of those good environmental outcomes.

There is also Tambourine Mountain, which is a beautiful part of the world, that is somewhat neglected in terms of its infrastructure. We are also pleased that the government was able to support a sporting precinct project of some $3.6 million. It is great for the mountain again with positive environmental outcomes but also jobs in building and in sporting tourism. There is also the fact that people who currently play sport or who are engaged in sport have to drive up and down the mountain to participate. There is a safety issue with that and of course the environmental considerations.

I find it really significant that the government plans to roll out $36 billion over the next six years on transport issues. I have used the example on many occasions. Canberra is a beautiful city that was well planned by Walter Burley Griffin, a man of vision for his time. In the period from 1914 to 1920, when he planned and developed the future city of Canberra, he got two things severely wrong, although he did not intend to get them wrong. He planned for the modern technology of the automobile with big roads and big roundabouts while somewhere else in the world Orville Wright was playing with a thing called the aeroplane. So Canberra has two problems: the roads get blocked because we have not planned well enough for public transport and it is very difficult to fly a plane into this place in wintertime. Canberra was about planning for the future and about looking at what we would need in our future. As a government, when we talk about nation building we are talking about future planning. We are not always going to get it right.

I take the point from both the members who have spoken about the priorities and the way that we roll these projects out, but understand the urgency and what we as a government were confronted with when the global economies were melting down and the fact that we had to decide what we were going to do in the short, medium and long term. As the members well know—and the Prime Minister talks about it all the time—70 per cent of the borrowings are being invested in infrastructure, the very projects that we are talking about today. We talk about Building the Education Revolution. It always amazes me when I am in this chamber to hear the opposition find reasons why we should not have gone ahead with our Building the Education Revolution. I am also surprised at the number of comments members get within their electorate offices that something is wrong with a particular project. All I get in my electorate office is praise. This is the biggest rollout of infrastructure in schools ever, and when I was campaigning for the seat of Forde one of the areas of greatest need—and I think our Prime Minister knew this in opposition—was the schools.

Think of the effect of bringing technology into the schools, building the correct infrastructure and providing the jobs that go into that infrastructure. The member for Kennedy said that school building is not nation building. I dispute that because there is a whole range of other benefits as well. It is very much about the infrastructure we provide to educate our young people. We are in a competitive global environment and Australia has done itself proud in the way that it has confronted the global financial crisis. Investing in schools and educating our young people to ensure that they have every opportunity to compete in what is becoming a smaller and smaller global economy is going to be very important. So, when we are confronted with these issues, we as a government, supported by the Independents, believe that nation building is very important. I take the point about prioritising projects, but understand that we have had to act in a way that was going to solve some immediate problems, and the long-term benefits for the country of nation building are the opportunities we provide to our young people and the opportunities that will give to spur on our employment opportunities. That ongoing investment is really important. (Time expired)

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