Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Yes; the shadow minister confirms in parliament that, yes, he says they would stop work on that. So we have got one response from them. The Leader of the National Party is here in the parliament and he says they would stop work on that project and build the Goodna bypass. That is what their position remains.

Construction of the regional rail link in Victoria is expected to commence in 2010. The preliminary work has already been done and I have been down there with Premier Brumby on two occasions so far already. It is scheduled for completion in 2014, with a federal investment of $3.2 billion. There is the Gawler rail modernisation in South Australia—perhaps that would just stop. It has a total federal investment of $293 million. Construction of the Noarlunga to Seaford rail extension in South Australia is expected to commence in 2010 and is scheduled for completion in 2013, with a total investment of some $291 million. Preconstruction work on the east-west rail tunnel in Victoria is underway with construction expected to commence in 2012. It has an investment commitment of $40 million. The Northbridge rail link is a project asked for and agreed to in conjunction with the Western Australian government and is expected to commence this year and be completed in 2014, with a total investment of $236 million.

All of these projects are going ahead under this government’s Nation Building Program and are part of the doubling of road spending and the quadrupling of rail spending that we have seen from this government as part of our commitment to nation building infrastructure. We have involvement in ports. For the first time there is direct Commonwealth involvement in our ports, opposed by those opposite. We have $339 million for an equity injection into the Oakajee port common user facilities north of Geraldton. It is a visionary project to establish a new port on the west coast to improve productivity for Australia into the long-term. There is $50 million for the Darwin port expansion. These two projects have money set aside subject to further work and consideration by Infrastructure Australia.

Those opposite say that they would simply get rid of some or all of these projects. It is up to them to say what projects they would cut back. We have got a $36 billion Nation Building Program on transport infrastructure. Those opposite are saying that they have $5 billion more than us so they would argue that somehow there is $41 billion over this period of time. The problem for the shadow minister is not just the budget papers, because it was news to the National Party that the budget papers have figures in them that are publicly available and able to be scrutinised. Therefore they say, ‘Oh well, that was months later. We made promises.’ The problem is, I have here a release from the member for Wide Bay in October 2007 where he is indeed inspecting works—not opening—on the first stage of the Gympie extension.

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