Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will ask a very brief question in order to enable my colleagues to raise some of their issues, because the minister has touched briefly on the issue that I wanted to ask him about, which is for him to address further this question of infrastructure, particularly in the western suburbs of Melbourne. The lack of funding for roads by the coalition is true not just if you look at spending from our government compared with the previous, Howard government but also if you look at the last 20 or 30 years: the big infrastructure projects were funded by Labor governments.

Minister Albanese, I am wondering if you can talk a little bit more about the latest investment in the Western Ring Road, the western suburbs of Melbourne being one of the fastest growing communities in the country; and how they complement our investments in regional rail and the latest investments in the Melbourne Metro. I, perhaps cheekily, put on the record that, if the east-west tunnel—as others persist in calling it—is to go ahead, I would like to call it the west-east tunnel! I do believe, given where the particular population pressures are, that, if it were to go ahead, consideration should be given to building it from the western end rather than the eastern end. That has a long way to travel, as the minister mentioned, when work has not already been done by the state government—and you might want to address that too, Minister. But I understand my colleague is going to ask you some questions to handle together.

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