Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I like the member for Blair. I do. I visited his electorate when I was the infrastructure minister, and we looked at the Cunningham Highway. In fact, I funded the Cunningham Highway. If there is a project in this country deserving of infrastructure spending, it doesn't matter the stripe or the colour or whatever political persuasion the government of the day is; it should be funded, and Labor needs to get on board with the Inland Rail Project. It is such a good proposal. It is such a good project that Prime Minister Albanese actually took credit for it himself, and, indeed, it has been on the drawing board since the 1890s. It took a coalition government to fund it. It took a coalition government to start it—that was back in 2018—and it's taken a Labor government, surprise of all surprises, to stop it, because that's what this Labor government does. It has no vision. It has no concept about the importance of productivity, the importance of logistics.

Moreover, given the importance of regional Australia and this project, which started when the first lot of steel was dropped off at Peak Hill on 15 January in 2018, it ought to be completed. Yet, no, this government will stop this project at Parkes. I appreciate that the Parkes-Narromine section, the first of 13 sections, has been completed. However, it's mainly Parkes where it will stop. That's where the logistics hub is. That's where the road bypass has been built by a coalition government. That's where such an important rail hub is going to be and already is. And yet you talk about the number of businesses affected in this space. There's Austrak at Wagga Wagga, which was going to build the concrete sleepers for use right up and down the line. There are so many businesses so reliant on this project going ahead that are now so disappointed in this federal Labor government. Less than two per cent of new infrastructure pipeline projects announced in the budget are for the regions. What does Labor have against the regions? This is such a good project. Yes, indeed, National Party people, as the member for Blair quite correctly pointed out, are talking about emissions reduction. It was going to take 200,000 trucks off our roads. Our crumbling regional roads that have been neglected by this Labor government. Our roads that have been neglected in this budget of broken promises. If you look at the infrastructure spend of this government, it's all metrocentric. This project was going to be such a game-changer, having double-stacked freight between Brisbane and Melbourne for the first time—a concept dreamt up in the 19th century—and it was already underway.

The member for Blair talked about cost rises. Yes, there were. When I took it over it was more or less a desktop analysis, but do you know what? I took it to three state ministers. Two out of the three were Labor state ministers—Mark Bailey in Queensland and Jacinta Allan, now the Premier of Victoria. They readily signed up to it, as did John Barilaro, who was the New South Wales deputy premier at the time. They could see the value for their states. It's such a shame that Canberra cannot see it now, although we've got a Labor government in office and so no surprises there as Labor is against the regions, against infrastructure.

I cannot understand why the member for Ballarat, the current infrastructure minister, isn't in there, around the cabinet table, thumping it and saying, 'I want more money for regional Australia.' She's not, but she should be. This is one project that needs to go ahead. I say to people, get out and sign the 'rescue our rail' petition. We need to get on board and tell this Labor government that this project is one that needs to go ahead for the businesses, for the Indigenous workers, for the Australian people who've absolutely got behind it. We have to leave inland Australian rail to be completed. And that concept, that acronym, shouldn't be lost on those Labor members opposite because it spells L-I-A-R.

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