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

I thank the member for Blair for his question. He is of course very proud of what this government has done, in particular for the Ipswich Motorway in Brisbane. We took the hard decision to invest in infrastructure during the global financial crisis, not only to stimulate the economy and to support jobs in the short term but to leave a lasting legacy in our communities, just like the government are doing right now through our flood and cyclone reconstruction package. Something like two-thirds of the roads that were damaged in Queensland have already been repaired and are open and running—a remarkable performance.

Through the stimulus we funded a number of projects. On Saturday night I was at an important opening—the opening of the Gold Coast stadium. I attended the first home game of the Gold Coast Suns to open and kick off the new stadium. On the way there I passed the construction site for the Gold Coast Rapid Transit system, another of our important infrastructure investments and the first ever Commonwealth investment in a light rail project. Construction is underway and jobs are underway on the Gold Coast.

Back in May 2009 we announced an allocation of $36 million for the stadium, the single largest allocation for a community infrastructure project. Just two years later it is built, opened on time and on budget. It was a sell-out game, with all 25,000 seats full. Seven thousand fans made the journey from interstate, particularly fans of Geelong. They got on planes, went to the Gold Coast and created jobs in tourism, jobs in the hotels, jobs in the restaurants and jobs at the venue—all tourism dollars going into the local economy.

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