Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If they say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then the current government are indeed very flattering about the former Labor government's record. They have been running around the country re-announcing projects as if they were their own. These include the $210 million infrastructure package for Cape York, the Midland Highway project in Tasmania, the $500 million upgrade of Western Australia's Great Northern Highway and North West Coastal Highway, Brisbane Legacy Way project, the upgrade of that city's Gateway Motorway north of the Brisbane River. In all of this they pretend that this has just occurred. Indeed, the Deputy Prime Minister pretends that roads have just appeared in a short period of time when he opens them.

There are also projects that they have previously opposed, such as the Huon Aquaculture project, re-announced by Minister Jamie Briggs just last month. When we announced it, Tasmanian senator Richard Colbeck described it as 'a disgusting display of pork barrelling of the highest order'. And yet, just six months later, they are re-announcing these projects—pretending that the money is new, pretending that the ideas are theirs. While it is flattering that they support the former government's infrastructure record, it is not surprising because we finished first in the OECD for investment in infrastructure. (Time expired)