Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Is the Treasurer aware of infrastructure bottlenecks affecting our nation’s economic and trade opportunities? What is the cause of these bottlenecks?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One industry in Australia that is strong at the moment is the mining industry, and one commodity that is particularly strong as part of the mining industry is coal. Coal prices have increased very considerably in Australia, but notwithstanding increased demand and increased prices we are having the difficulty of getting volumes of exports up. This is going to the heart of Australia’s national income and to the heart of our trade performance.

The particular port in Australia that is our largest coal exporting port is Dalrymple Bay in Queensland. The bottleneck at this port is costing mining companies $1 billion a year, threatening hundreds of jobs and risking exports as more than 50 ships sit off Dalrymple Bay waiting to be loaded.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you sure it’s the biggest port?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hunter interjects with childish interjections. Does he show any concern about the fact that one of Australia’s most important export industries, where we could be earning national income, could now be suffering a loss of $1 billion? How often are we asked in this parliament by some member of the opposition to comment on Australia’s export performance? How important is it? It is of absolute importance. Here we are, at a time when the world wants this resource and when prices have never been higher, and we cannot export it because of sheer incompetence in the management at Dalrymple Bay.

Lest anybody think that I have recently become interested in this let me remind the House that I first raised this matter in the House in February 2005. In 2005 there were 40 ships waiting off the coast of Dalrymple Bay. Now we are in 2007 and there are 50 ships. Think of all of the lost income that has transpired since then. All of the other countries around the world that have coal resources are increasing their capacity to get those markets but in Australia we cannot increase our capacity because we cannot fix the rail line down to the port.

Who owns that rail line? It is the Queensland government. You cannot blame a private operator. I think the Queensland government is now the only state owned rail in relation to freight and exports in Australia. They deliberately kept control of this rail line so that there would be no competition, so that they could extract a monopoly rent and so that they could pay a dividend. The one thing they forgot to actually do was to invest in the capacity so that we could get exports to the port and out to the rest of the world.

I heard the Premier of Queensland, who is apparently not responsible for anything, on the radio today. There seems to be no area of policy in Queensland for which he takes responsibility, and he was saying that this is all the fault of the expansion of the Chinese market; no-one at the federal level, no-one amongst the coal companies and no-one at the state level correctly anticipated the expansion of the Chinese market. Two years ago I was raising that matter here in this parliament because two years ago there had already been a two-year delay in relation to increasing infrastructure. Here we are now, four years later, with nothing done, with no competition, with no investment, with underresourced infrastructure, with Australia’s exports, as a result, bleeding and the Queensland Premier says, ‘This is because no-one anticipated the increase in China.’ There have been over four years to do something about this problem.

This is solely and totally the responsibility of a state Labor government. When you are looking at the performance of Labor and wondering whether or not they could manage a national economy, ask yourself this question: which state government would you hold up as the exemplar of economic policy in this country? Would it be Queensland, where they cannot get the rail system right? Would it be New South Wales, known for their expertise in motor vehicle tunnels, or Victoria, where the passenger trains stop but they do not quite stop at the platform? Think about it. The Labor Party cannot run any one state and yet if they get elected at the next election they will be running every state and the national economy. This is not good enough for Australia’s export reputation. The Commonwealth have offered to take control of export ports, which are critical for the national economy. The Queensland government and every other state Labor government have refused to do it. They are solely responsible for this problem and they need to fix it fast.