House debates

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Questions without Notice

Infrastructure

2:12 pm

Photo of Rick WilsonRick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House of action the government is taking to assist local communities with the development of infrastructure to enable local growth, particularly in my state of Western Australia?

2:13 pm

Photo of Warren TrussWarren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question because this government is delivering important infrastructure for communities right across the nation. There has been a lot of talk about our $50 billion infrastructure investment program, which people are seeing in practical form in projects right across the nation. A lot of those are major projects in our capital cities and on major highways, but by far the greatest number of projects are small projects in regional and local communities.

A good example of this substantial investment in local communities is the Roads to Recovery program. This is one of the most popular programs around the nation because it delivers and helps councils to upgrade and maintain their local road network. This government has trebled the amount of funding to go to local councils around Australia under the Roads to Recovery program this year and next year—trebled the amount of money to fix local potholes, to fix up local streets, to ensure that the last mile of the road network is able to be maintained in a reasonable sort of way.

That means practical differences at the local level. For instance, in the electorate of Canning, councils will receive $6.7 million under this funding this year and $7.5 million next year. They will be able to direct that to projects of their choice. It is treble the amount of money that they have been receiving traditionally, and is making a real difference to local roads.

But that is not all. In the Black Spot Program an extra $100 million has been provided over the next two years, and that translates to 14 black spot projects in the electorate of Canning alone—that is 14 dangerous spots where accidents have been occurring, or are likely to occur, that will be fixed. That means safer roads at the local level. We will continue the financial assistance grants for councils as well so, again, they are able to fund local projects of their choice. The Serpentine Jarrahdale council in Canning received $245,000 for the construction and fit-out of a community kitchen under our billion-dollar National Stronger Regions Fund. What we are doing is delivering projects for regional communities: $1.7 million is being spent to replace decks on two bridges on the South Western Highway near Byford. These are practical examples of our $50 billion national infrastructure project delivering results for local communities—in Canning, in all of Western Australia and right across the country.