Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the committee for this opportunity to make an opening statement, and I trust I will be given the clean air to make that statement, despite those opposite. The Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio, as you may know, has 13 agencies that receive funding from the government. The 2017-18 budget provides the portfolio with ordinary annual funding of $5.5 billion in 2017-18 and an average staffing level of just over 5,000 people. In the 2017-18 budget the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has funding for 13 new measures—and I will come back to some of those in a moment—ordinary annual funding of $2 billion, an average staffing level 2,061 and a relatively stable level of funding through the forward years.

A real priority for the government is the delivery of further investment in infrastructure across our cities, and the budget allocated $17 million over four years from 2017-18 to establish the Infrastructure and Project Financing Agency. The aim of that agency is to assist in the identification, development and assessment of innovative financing options in major infrastructure projects. For many years governments have been talking about the need to match the large amount of capital available for high-quality infrastructure projects with the desperate need for more investment in infrastructure. We are getting on and doing it and we are creating a team that has the skills to match that, not just talking about how it could be a theoretical possibility.

There is also $23½ million over four years from 2017-18 to expand the capacity of the government's Cities task force, which is part of our commitment to making our cities more productive and livable. The Deputy Speaker will know that not only are we focusing on our capital cities but we also have a very strong focus on regional cities, with the first of our City Deals completed in Townsville and Launceston, and we are now working in Western Sydney. This funding will continue the work of the task force and drive implementation of the Commonwealth's agenda for Australian cities, a genuine agenda driven from the centre of government. For the first time in this country's history—

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