Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak in the consideration in detail of Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2016-2017, because I am very proud of this government's commitment to investment in infrastructure, both road and rail infrastructure, with a $50 billion commitment from 2013-14 to 2019-20. The government is very proud to be building for the future. We recognise that, if you invest in good infrastructure, you change people's lives and you save people's lives. It is changing lives by reducing congestion and improving productivity, and it is saving lives through road safety treatments, at a time when we have seen an increase in road trauma right across the nation but particularly in our regional areas. We are very committed to building the right infrastructure at the right time to create jobs and prosperity.

The member for Grayndler has spoken today and he has been making a lot of public comments about payments that he says have not been delivered, about the gap between anticipated expenditure and actual expenditure. But managing the federal budget according to construction schedules is nothing new, and the member for Grayndler knows that. Reprofiling or rephasing expenditure is nothing new. He knows that. He is either being quite deliberately mischievous or he is suffering from some form of amnesia. Labor's record in relation to this is a case in point. In the 2010-11 Commonwealth budget, Labor predicted they would spend $6.8 billion on infrastructure in 2012-13. But what did Labor actually spend on infrastructure in 2012-13? It was just $3.6 billion. So the member for Grayndler is running round the country making big and bold claims—

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