Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

As you know, Mr Speaker, I'm an optimistic kind of bloke. I've noticed that these matters of public importance are often quite negative. So today I thought I'd try and start on a more positive note. Given that this MPI is all about infrastructure and delivery, I thought I'd do the right thing by the government. I thought I'd do the right thing by the Albanese government and list their infrastructure achievements, reading them for the benefit of the parliament, so we'd all be better informed. So we searched. We checked the ministerial press releases. We read through social media. I didn't check in the despatch box, but maybe I should have! But here is the definite list—zero, zilch, nothing, duck eggs. We couldn't find a single project that the minister—who hasn't stayed here for the MPI—or this government has announced, designed, funded and delivered in the past 15 months.

I note that my good mate the member for Cowper is right behind me today. His electorate is famous for the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour. As a child, I visited the Big Banana. I'm worried that the infrastructure minister also visited the Big Banana as a child but took that as some sort of ministerial job description for a future career, because she has become the Big Banana of the Albanese cabinet. She has built absolutely nothing anywhere near anything. It used to be the infrastructure portfolio; now it has become the banana portfolio—they build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything.

There are some dangerous places in the world today—hostile areas with particularly inhospitable environments. Among the top 10 of the most dangerous places in the world are: Death Road, Snake Island, the Gates of Hell, the Skeleton Coast and Death Valley—they all sound very dangerous, but I'm quite sad to report this list isn't quite complete. It's out of date. There's another place in Australia today which needs to be added to the list. There is one other place you just don't want to find yourself loitering for too long. You never want to stand between a Labor minister and a ribbon-cutting event on a project they had nothing to do with. Never stand between a Labor minister and a ribbon-cutting event that they had absolutely nothing to do with. You see them lining up for the project openings. Be very careful, colleagues, in your own electorates—if you actually get invited! If you're there, you will be killed in the stampede for the photo opportunity. They're claiming credit for projects that were fully funded by the previous government, claiming credit for projects that commenced construction during the term of the previous government, claiming credit for projects fully funded by the coalition. They're not only claiming credit but also boldly posting with gushing praise on their social media accounts. Then they come in here, whinging that the previous government did nothing.

If you travel anywhere in regional Australia today and you see a bulldozer, a grader or a crane working on a new infrastructure project, you can be certain of one thing: it wasn't funded by this Labor government. On this side of the chamber, we are proud of our achievements. We had record infrastructure investment which changed and actually saved lives. We built roads, we built railway lines and we built airports. We funded local councils to build community infrastructure. After 12 months, we are waiting for the ministers in the Albanese government to build anything other than their own egos.

If you listen to those opposite, it's like a variation on that famous Monty Python sketch: what have the Romans ever done for us? 'What has the coalition done for us?' Well, apart from fully duplicating the Pacific Highway from Sydney to Brisbane, massive upgrades to the Bruce Highway right through Queensland, starting construction on the Western Sydney Airport, light rail and inland rail, an extra lane to the Monash Freeway, the Beef Roads Program, Roads of Strategic Importance, a second road crossing in Toowoomba, increased funding for local and regional roads, introduced the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which those opposite have now abolished—

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