Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

It was only about 10 or so weeks ago that I ascended to the dizzying heights of shadow assistant minister for infrastructure. So I am quite certain, listening to the contributions tonight, that the former infrastructure minister here, the member for Riverina, has forgotten more about infrastructure than I currently know. But, in my glittering 10 weeks in this portfolio, the failures of this government, as it sets about ripping the guts out of infrastructure funding for regional Australia, have become abundantly clear. We have a tale of two railways in Australia right now.

This $45 billion productivity boosting, nation-building project, spanning some three states and boosting our freight capacity for the future, is somehow unaffordable, but the $200 billion pipe dream that is the Suburban Rail Loop, servicing only suburban Melbourne, is somehow worthy of $6 billion of federal money and counting. Let's just go through the numbers piece by piece, because the $6.15 billion cut from the Inland Rail project is not an isolated decision, as I said, but just one indication of this government's determination to rip the guts out of regional infrastructure spending.

Not only have we seen $4.7 billion cut from infrastructure spending overall—and, indeed, in the other place right now, Senator Mckenzie is forensically examining the department on exactly where those cuts have been made—but we've seen significant reductions in regional communications, the National Water Grid, pest and disease programs and drought and trade support, meaning that regional Australia is carrying some $11 billion in cuts. Meanwhile, there's still $18.2 billion for net zero fantasies, including more than $1 billion for the green hydrogen dream that even prominent mining billionaires who've thrown a lot of money into that have walked away from, and there's $6 billion for the Suburban Rail Loop. One wonders, when there are estimates of between $15 billion and $30 billion of public money already siphoned off into organised crime in Victoria, whether that is a prudent use of Commonwealth taxpayer money. The juxtaposition against this project, which admittedly has had some challenges—as I say, spanning three states and dreamed of for a century now in Australia—is inexplicable.

Where we've got funding continuing to flow into the other states as costs spiral out of control but only in metropolitan areas, the failure of this government to stand up for regional Australia, as it claims to do, becomes clear. Victoria's North East Link was originally $15.6 billion. It's now blown out to $26 billion and counting, a 67 per cent increase. Despite that, the Commonwealth has increased its own contribution by $5 billion. If they wanted to reach around in the bottom drawer and find money the way that this mob spend it, I'm sure this project could have been completed. But, as I say, there's no focus on productive freight infrastructure. Instead, there are billions upon billions for high-risk metropolitan projects riddled with organised crime and CFMEU linked thuggery. Where are the economic returns and the productive assessments of these projects? It seems that the independent analysis of the Suburban Rail Loop suggests that there is a net return of less than 50c in the dollar.

This is a government that promised to link infrastructure spend to productivity and to take the politics out of it. Well, I think tonight we are seeing again that we shouldn't listen to what Labor say. Look at what Labor governments do. Their budget papers further show that they are ripping the guts out of Western Australia's Commonwealth infrastructure spend in some sort of underhanded way to offset the GST deal that they claim to stand behind. Western Australia's infrastructure spend has gone from $3.45 billion just in the 2025-26 budget papers to $1.5 billion. Where has the money gone, Minister and Treasurer? Again, it seems to me that regional Australia and the powerhouse state that is WA are being made to pay for these suburban follies.

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