Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Lindsay for her question, and I recognise that she has been a fierce fighter for Western Sydney because she wants to see construction and new jobs, and she is determined to have prosperity, in Western Sydney. As the member for Lindsay and all members know, we have now made a massive commitment to infrastructure in Australia that will lead to an investment of $125 billion of new infrastructure over the next few years. The total Commonwealth infrastructure investment in New South Wales is $14.9 billion—a significant sum of money. Why are we doing this? We inherited an economy with falling terms of trade. The mining and resources boom that we have all benefited from over the last few years had a big production phase. It sucked a lot of construction workers out of the rest of the economy and gave them an opportunity to have a well-paid job. That was terrific.

The mining industry has done and still does a great job. It represents 10 per cent of our economy and two per cent of our jobs. But, the mining industry has moved from a construction phase to a production and export phase. We should celebrate that. However, those workers who were involved in the construction phase are now moving into the other 90 per cent of the economy and looking for work. What we are doing is rolling out long-term infrastructure to give them that work. We are rolling out long-term infrastructure to lift the productive capacity of the other 90 per cent of the Australian economy. If we do not move now to build this infrastructure then there will be a fall in growth in two to three years in the Australian economy with the net result that unemployment will go higher. That is unacceptable to the coalition. There is a price that we have to pay. If Australians pay an extra 40c a week to fill their car as a result of an increase in excise, that gives us a revenue stream to move now on the infrastructure that is going to deliver us sustainable jobs into the future. That is how it works. You cannot promise things on the never-never—you need to move now. Our infrastructure program is not just about today's jobs. Our infrastructure program is about tomorrow's jobs and beyond.

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