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

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that:

(a) Australia's cities require investment and leadership from the Government to deal with a number of pressing challenges, especially urban congestion;

(b) Infrastructure Australia has estimated that urban congestion will cost $53 billion in lost productivity by 2031 if left unaddressed; and

(c) public transport is essential for the realisation of the vision of 30 minute cities;

(2) notes that a number of factors contribute to the worsening of urban congestion, including:

(a) Australia's transition to a knowledge intensive economy, which means employment opportunities continue to cluster in the CBDs of our cities;

(b) high house prices that have seen key workers, single person households and families on very low and middle incomes struggle to find homes close to work, resulting in drive-in drive-out suburbs in nearly all capital cities; and

(c) the rapid growth of Australia's cities, which will see the four largest capitals—Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth—increase their population by 46 per cent and Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin increase their population by nearly 30 per cent by 2031; and

(3) calls on the Government to:

(a) use evidence-based policy to support investment in the infrastructure that is required to reduce urban congestion in Australia's cities; and

(b) use the upcoming budget to provide investment for public transport projects listed by Infrastructure Australia as priorities, some of which have suffered funding cuts under the Coalition Government, including the Metro Trains Melbourne, the Cross River Rail, Western Sydney Rail, the Gawler rail line upgrade, and the AdeLINK tram network.

Our nation's cities are at a crossroad. Poised for rapid population growth in coming decades, our four largest capitals—Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth—will increase their population by 46 per cent. Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin will increase their population by nearly 30 per cent by 2031.

We know that Australia's transition to a knowledge intensive economy has seen jobs be based in the CBDs of our cities. That has meant that it is harder for key workers, single-person households and families on low and middle incomes to find homes close to work, resulting in drive-in, drive-out suburbs in nearly all capital cities. Infrastructure Australia has told us that urban congestion will cost $53 billion in lost productivity by 2031, if left unaddressed.

We need leadership from the government to deal with these pressing challenges, to improve public transport and to make sure that jobs are created close to where people live. But this is a government that is not matching its rhetoric with reality. It says it understands the importance of infrastructure investment, yet the budget cuts it by $1.6 billion in this financial year alone, with investment to fall off a cliff over the next four years, from a projected $9.2 billion this year, in the government's own projections, down to $4.2 billion in 2020-21.

It is the same with public transport. Malcolm Turnbull loves taking selfies on trains, trams and buses; he just will not fund them with any new investment. The fact is that this year's budget does not have a single dollar of new investment for urban public transport. There is no investment in the Cross River Rail project in Brisbane, Adelaide's AdeLINK, Western Sydney Rail or the Melbourne Metro. Indeed, despite making up 25 per cent of the nation's population, Victoria will receive no new money from the Commonwealth over the forwards for its infrastructure investment program. The budget papers themselves show zero, zero, zero, zero, zero for the years 2016-17 to 2020-21 for infrastructure investment for Victoria. This government has contempt for Victorians, exemplified by its approach to Victorian infrastructure.

In addition, there has been a big deal made about the so-called City Deals program, but there isn't a single dollar in the 2017 budget to make this a reality. The city deals so far are deals in Townsville and Launceston, which are simply an attempt to dress up belated matching of ALP commitments to the Townsville stadium and the University of Tasmania. In Western Sydney, the government is trying to retrofit an election announcement with substance that does not exist and no clear funding to actually get there. The City of Blacktown has actually been excluded from the City Deals process even though they will grow by 200,000 additional people from 2011 to 2036.

City Deals, when done right, provide an opportunity, in particular, for local government to work together with other levels and encourage the economic growth of a region. This government is not doing that. They have established this absurd infrastructure financing unit in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. This is a solution looking for a problem. There is no lack of financing from the private sector or from superannuation funds for good infrastructure projects. There certainly is no lack of innovative financing, which is how projects like the Gold Coast light rail project was funded with support from Infrastructure Australia. This sidelines Infrastructure Australia from the process and completely creates this bureaucracy whereby the private sector are wondering what it will do. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia said:

…the Budget confirms the cut to 'real' budgeted capital funding to its lowest level in more than a decade—using a mix of underspend, re-profiling and narrative to cover this substantial drop in real capital expenditure.

The fact is that this government has abandoned cities at a time when they require leadership and investment from the Commonwealth to ensure their ongoing productivity, sustainability and liveability. This budget means it is a lost opportunity, because the coalition government simply are not up to the task of providing leadership for this century.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler has moved the motion in his name. Is there a seconder?

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here we have the member for Grayndler's great optical illusion—'Albo's' evidence based mirage. I think we all know that the Labor Party, and particularly the member for Grayndler, in his former roles under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era, are hypocritical when it comes to infrastructure. They are all talk; no action. The entire thing is a facade.

We heard in the recent budget a $75 billion commitment from the coalition government towards infrastructure over the next 10 years. That is for road, rail and air. If the member for Grayndler is right, then the facts would bear it out. However, I have compared the annual spend under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era on transport infrastructure, and the average annual spend was just over $6 billion. In a comparable time frame, the coalition since 2013 spent over $8 billion. So, $6 billion, Labor, and $8 billion, coalition, and the member for Grayndler actually suggests that the coalition is spending less. Straight mathematics tells you the complete opposite. The coalition now has a $75 billion commitment for a 10-year period, moving on.

I found it fascinating that this motion seems to give so much credibility to following Infrastructure Australia's advice. We just heard from the member for Grayndler a complaint that the Brisbane Cross River Rail was not included in the budget. Yet there was an interview on ABC Radio, that I believe was only this morning, where Steve Austin interviewed Jackie Trad. It was based on comments from a spokesperson from Infrastructure Australia, who said that Infrastructure Australia:

… has a number of outstanding concerns with the Cross River Rail business case and we have advised the Queensland government of these concerns.

We are working with the Queensland government to address these and we hope to be able to finalise our evaluation when they are addressed.

It is all well and good to promote an evidence based approach. However, if you do not like the outcome you cannot then stand up and complain, and that is exactly what we have had from the member for Grayndler. The member for Grayndler also did not take advice from Infrastructure Australia on the Perth Freight Link, despite the fact that it was identified by Infrastructure Australia as the highest priority infrastructure job. He has now decided that Infrastructure Australia is really good when it agrees with Labor's political agenda but really bad when it does not. That is not evidence based policy making. It is Albo's mirage. It really is. It is an absolute facade. It is an optical illusion. It is all about the politics.

Look at the spending on infrastructure by the coalition government in my patch of the world, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. You will see that a coalition government has extended a $181 million concessional loan for the Sunshine Coast Airport to become a fully fledged international airport. You will see 80 per cent of the $929 million works between Caloundra Road and Sunshine Motorway—the sod was turned only last week. You will see 80 per cent of the $187 million job around the Maroochydore Road interchange.

In the recent budget alone, we have $530 million of Commonwealth money for the Bruce Highway from Caboolture to the Caloundra turnoff and $120 million for the Deception Bay Interchange. Labor would never do this. Where the coalition has committed $6.7 billion to the Bruce Highway, Labor committed $4.1 billion. While the coalition was prepared to go 80-20 with the state, the Labor Party went 50-50. They are full of it. Unfortunately, it is all based on ideology.

I will finish with one point about Queensland and the asset recycling initiative. How much did we get out of that? Zero. Why? We got zero because the Labor Party in Queensland is ideologically opposed to it. It is all ideology from Labor.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for infrastructure for bringing this motion and for continuing his relentless focus on this issue. He has demonstrated time and again that it is smart and targeted investment in infrastructure that we have been missing for these last four years.

The most telling statistic, against the numbers that were quoted by the previous contributor, the member for Fairfax, is that infrastructure investment in the best year of the Abbott-Turnbull government has been less than in the lowest year of the former Labor government. That failure is holding us back. It is preventing Australia from developing a more diverse and productive economy. It is preventing Australia from creating 21st century cities, industries, export opportunities and jobs.

Infrastructure is all the stuff that connects us together. It is the skeleton and the circulatory system that makes it all work and move—or not, as the case may be. It is the rail lines that move freight, the trains that get people to work and the roads and bridges that allow traffic to flow. It is the pipes, cables and other networks that deliver essential services like scheme water, gas, electricity and telecommunications.

Infrastructure is the functional bedrock of our cities and our regional communities, but it is also the path into our future. Without planning and implementing the next wave of infrastructure, Australia will fall behind and Australians will miss out. Twenty-first century infrastructure includes innovations that are necessary if we are to keep pace and keep evolving at a time of rapid change. We need investment to support sophisticated manufacturing industries like shipbuilding, especially in WA, which, unfortunately, appears to exist in a blind spot for this government. As we shift further towards renewable energy, we need investment in smart-grid technology and urban design that can accommodate off-grid developments—ideas that are being explored in the White Gum Valley project in my electorate.

But far and away the most important current infrastructure project is the NBN. At the moment, we are locked into an approach that is likely to give us a broadband network that will be sub-par at the point of completion, with no clear upgrade path. We know that people around the country are discovering that fibre to the node is often not much better than ADSL broadband. People in regional Australia are being further disadvantaged in comparison to their metropolitan cousins. We are seeing buck passing from telco service retailers.

If you want to do infrastructure well, you have to support planning, research and innovation; you have to provide rigorous decision-making processes to analyse, select, and schedule project work; and you have to ensure there is funding to deliver on those decisions. That is the approach Labor took in government. That is the approach the shadow minister for infrastructure continues to champion.

Sadly, in Western Australia over the last four years we have suffered the double whammy of underinvestment and bad process. The federal budget, handed down the week before last, continues that trend. There is not one new dollar in infrastructure spending for Western Australia. Thankfully, the people of Western Australia have chosen a Labor state government. That has seen the back of the Perth Freight Link. Instead, we have secured those funds for high-value local transport projects. In my electorate of Fremantle they include the North Lake Rd bridge; the widening of the freeway northbound from Russell Road; the upgrade of the Stirling Highway and High Street intersection; and the rail line from Thornlie to Cockburn Central, which is a key part of METRONET. I campaigned on those projects because I know how important they are to the community I represent.

Liberal members in this place said on several occasions earlier this year that for Western Australia it was the top-down, unplanned, wasteful and harmful folly of the Perth Freight Link or it was nothing. The Minister for Urban Infrastructure said the $1.2 billion would not be provided for other projects, and certainly not for METRONET. Well, it is amazing what a difference an election can make. I was very surprised to hear the member for Tangney describe this 180-degree turnaround as being an outcome that he and his colleagues were happy to negotiate. That must have been some negotiation! They essentially rolled over, the tough talk rubbish went out the door and—hey presto—those locked-up funds suddenly became available for the projects that we had said were needed. It would be similar to the Germans coming out in 1919, talking about the Treaty of Versailles and saying how happy they were with those negotiations. I like the member for Tangney; he is a good fellow. But if I am ever in a hostage crisis, Member for Tangney, please call in a professional!

Those funds are coming to Western Australia and that is a mercy. It does not mean the Abbott-Turnbull government has woken up to its neglect of Western Australia. As I said, the budget does not provide a single new dollar in infrastructure funding for my home state. We are being dudded with the barest minimum allocation when it comes to Defence shipbuilding work. The budget papers show no improvement in unemployment over the next year, 2017-18, which is heartbreaking for the 100,000 people in Western Australia who are still looking for work.

Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Consistency is important in politics. The member for Grayndler speaks of support for Infrastructure Australia, which he established, on the one hand, but when it is politically inconvenient he ignores their advice. The ALP chooses to ignore Infrastructure Australia's advice on the Perth Freight Link. In Infrastructure Australia's current Infrastructure priority list, the Perth Freight Link remains listed among the high priority projects and is the highest priority infrastructure project in Western Australia. It seems by the wording of this motion that the member chooses to ignore WA entirely. And I am disappointed that the member for Fremantle has seconded the motion, a motion that calls on the government to do nothing for Western Australia. Surely, as opposed to seconding the motion, he could have amended it to actually deliver something for WA.

Labor is ignoring the 10,000 jobs that the Perth Freight Link creates and the fact that the Perth Freight Link takes 7,000 trucks and 74,000 light vehicles off local roads each day—roads like Leach Highway, Farrington Road, South Street, Stock Road, North Lake Road and Beeliar Drive. East-west access across our city and access to Perth Airport, the Fiona Stanley Hospital, the St John of God hospital and Murdoch University would all benefit from the Perth Freight Link. Fourteen sets of traffic lights would be bypassed on Leach Highway and Stock Road.

We have to remember that the construction of Roe 8 would have impacted on only 0.49 per cent of the Beeliar Wetlands. It would save 450,000 tons of CO2 by 2031. Construction would include bridges at Roe Swamp and Horse Paddock Swamp, offset land, and power line realignment to utilise already cleared land. Despite its words on this motion, Labor wants to make our streets in WA less safe and more congested, particularly in the southern suburbs.

What do Infrastructure Australia say about the Perth Freight Link? They say:

The project aligns with Infrastructure Australia’s strategic priorities to ‘increase productivity’, ‘expand productive capacity’ and ‘build on Australia’s global competitive advantages’ through delivering a more efficient freight network.

Labor have been absolutely exposed on their infrastructure policies for WA. They want us to think that they are committed to an outer harbour, but let us look at the facts. Their own policy document says that they want to maintain Fremantle port as an operational port and they want to improve the management of truck movements to and from Fremantle port. Labor's commitment to investigate or study the outer harbour will be a rude shock to locals, who were conned into thinking that Labor would start work constructing that outer harbour. There is no such commitment to do so.

I join the member for Fremantle in welcoming the agreement to upgrade High Street between Carrington Street and the Stirling Highway. It is an upgrade of High Street between Carrington Street and the Stirling Highway; it is not just an intersection upgrade, like the member for Fremantle wants people to believe. It confirms that Fremantle port and the trucks that access it are here to stay. No-one has told the Mayor of Fremantle, Brad Pettitt, though, who says that this work may be potentially unnecessary because of the commitment to the outer harbour. Mayor Pettitt, there is no commitment to the outer harbour other than a study. I think the member for Fremantle should be very honest with the people of Fremantle about this.

I stand with the member for Fremantle in supporting the projects that he mentioned, but I wish he would support the Perth Freight Link—something that he has called ridiculous—because getting trucks and cars off our local streets is not a ridiculous project at all. A letter published in the member for Fremantle's electorate only recently states:

For Josh Wilson to call the Perth Freight Link ridiculous could send investments—both Government and private—away from Fremantle.

Why can’t Fremantle residents have faster access to Fiona Stanley Hospital, to the freeway and to the airport? Why can’t people from the South-West have faster access to Fremantle?

Why can’t we reduce pollution by building a highway that eliminates stop-start traffic lights?

…   …   …

With the anti-development brigade calling the shots, the future of Fremantle doesn’t look very bright.

And I agree entirely. Why can't the people of Fremantle have better access?

The government has confirmed our commitment to build the Perth Freight Link, and I am pleased that $1.2 billion is formalised as a contingent liability for this important project. Roe 8 and Roe 9 can be built. The money is there, but the political will is not. The member for Fremantle, the member for Burt and all WA Labor members need to convince Mark McGowan to back WA infrastructure and back WA jobs. I do not know why Labor wants to put the Greens and trendy people in inner-city cafes ahead of jobs and infrastructure. That is something the member for Grayndler can explain. (Time expired)

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion put by the member for Grayndler, who knows my electorate of Moreton well. I have stood alongside him at many places in South Brisbane because we have an important confluence of transport links. The Ipswich Motorway comes in from the west, servicing people from Toowoomba, Sydney and beyond. The motorway connects to the north via Ipswich Road or the east via Granard and Riawena roads. The Beaudesert Road brings people from the south-west through Acacia Ridge and Moorooka and into the city. Oxley Road is an important link to the growth corridors of Forest Lake, Heathwood and beyond. They go over the Indooroopilly bridge or the Western Freeway.

There are train lines. The Ipswich line brings people in from the west through Oxley, Corinda, Graceville and Chelmer. There is a spur off to the Beenleigh line through Tennyson for goods and coal. The Beenleigh train line connects the Gold Coast and Brisbane. The standard gauge interstate train line connects all the way from Perth through to Melbourne and Sydney and right up to Acacia Ridge. The goods depot at Tennyson, next to the Brisbane Markets, is the beginning of the journey for goods going north right through to Cairns. Mains Road is the second busiest bus route in Brisbane that is not actually a busway.

Moreton's transport routes are very busy and, sadly, are becoming more and more congested. I have nearly 19,000 businesses, and many of them are connected with transport. Traffic congestion is becoming a daily battle for many of my constituents travelling either to work or to study and even on the weekends when they are trying to access play. It is not just the inconvenience of being stuck in traffic, driving bumper to bumper for kilometres on end; traffic congestion has an economic impact on growth in Queensland.

The Merivale Bridge is currently the only rail crossing over the Brisbane River in the city's CBD. That is between the city of Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It is fast approaching capacity. Without a second rail crossing, Brisbane's economic growth will be reduced, along with its capacity to create jobs for the future. This is probably why the independent body Infrastructure Australia has already approved the Cross River Rail project. In fact we had the former transport minister, who has an electorate in mine, ready to go to the press conference with Anthony Albanese to announce it, but, sadly, it was sabotaged by Campbell Newman. The former Labor government funded the project in 2013 but since then the Turnbull government has failed all Queenslanders by stalling on this important infrastructure project that we need right now.

Increasing the capacity of the rail network would not only benefit people living in my electorate of Moreton but it would directly benefit people travelling into Brisbane from regional areas—not just the Gold Coast to the south and beyond but also the Sunshine Coast to the north and Toowoomba in the west. There has been deathly silence from the LNP federal members representing people in these regional areas, despite this infrastructure project having a direct benefit for their constituents. This project would facilitate an additional 19,000 bums on public transport seats during peak hour, which would make our roads less congested. Importantly, increasing the capacity of the rail network would benefit all Queenslanders by fuelling economic growth—everywhere north of the Tweed. The LNP betrayed our national car industry for short-sighted political reasons, but it is a no-brainer to invest in this type of infrastructure. If our cities are congested, our regions suffer right along with our urban areas.

In the 2017 budget the Turnbull government did not announce any funding for the Cross River Rail project. However, it did announce funding of $8.4 billion to build the Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail. 'The biggest rail project in 100 years', they said in their media release—a Warren Truss legacy. There is one problem I can see with this project: it ends at Acacia Ridge. Acacia Ridge is not on the Port of Brisbane; it is right in the middle of my electorate, and so far there is no plan to get the freight from Acacia Ridge to the Port of Brisbane or vice versa. There is no plan that does not involve double handling of freight and more B-doubles on the streets of Moreton.

There are a couple of options available to move freight between Acacia Ridge and the Port of Brisbane. One option is to build a tunnel from Acacia Ridge to the port—a tunnel right under the homes of people living in Sunnybank, Robertson and MacGregor with ventilation shafts going in the middle of these homes. The other option is for another train line to be built alongside the Gateway Motorway. That option would have a devastating impact on Karawatha Forest, one of the largest areas of remnant bushland left in the City of Brisbane. That would be a concern for the residents of Runcorn, Kuraby and Eight Mile Plains.

Sadly, neither of these options have been funded. This is like another fibre to the node type nation-building project—it just stops at Acacia Ridge. The trucks will move the freight from Acacia Ridge by road, which for transport is the equivalent of using copper in the NBN. It would create further congestion in my electorate. The Turnbull government needs to do more.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to congratulate the Turnbull government on its expenditure in my electorate of Fisher for all things infrastructure.    Just last week I welcomed the transport and infrastructure minister to my electorate where we turned the first sod on the Bruce Highway for the $929.3 million upgrade between Caloundra Road and the Sunshine Motorway. This will take the highway from four lanes to six lanes. It will provide a new interchange Caloundra Road and a new interchange at the Sunshine Motorway. It will provide a number of service roads. In fact, all up I am told there will be 100 kilometres of new roads just in that stretch that is to be improved. Together with parking and park-and-ride facilities, this is a fantastic outcome for the Sunshine Coast, and I am very proud to have announced it last year. The works are underway—they started last week—and we are all very excited about that on the sunny coast.

But we have not stopped there. In the budget two weeks ago the Treasurer announced some $650 million in addition to that already put aside for upgrades to the Bruce Highway south of Caloundra. That will provide us three lanes each way at a minimum from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast. Once again I am very proud to be a part of the Turnbull government that has delivered those upgrades for the Sunshine Coast. Add to that another $180-odd million for the Nambour interchange, which takes this government's total expenditure on the Bruce Highway the $1.6 billion. That is the most money spent by a federal government on the Bruce Highway in my neck of the woods, and it is not before time.

When the member for Grayndler was the infrastructure minister, what did he do for the Sunshine Coast? Absolutely nothing. It reminds me of the old saying: 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' What did the member for Grayndler ever do for the Sunshine Coast? Absolutely nothing.

I am very, very proud to be part of a government that is providing this much-needed infrastructure, part of $75 billion over a 10-year investment program for this infrastructure, for the country. But we are not stopping there. We all know that dealing with the travel woes for Sunshine Coast locals going to Brisbane is not just predicated on an effective Bruce Highway; we now have to turn our attention to the duplication of the railway line between Beerburrum and Nambour. So, as well as $8.4 billion that this government has set aside for the Melbourne to Brisbane railway, this government has set aside another $10 billion across 10 years to fund the National Rail Program.

Out of that National Rail Program, the Palaszczuk Labor government can bid for the duplication of the railway line. In my discussions—and I am sure that my friend the member for Petrie has discovered the same thing—I have discovered that on not one occasion has the Palaszczuk Labor government picked up the phone and tried to speak to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and tried to get funding for that much-needed duplication of the railway line. We have to ensure that the state Labor government actually gets off its backside and applies for that money.

I intend to write to the Queensland government this week to formally request how we might advance the progress of the rail duplication. I hope they respond, unlike the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Anthony Lynham. I wrote to that minister on 2 February on behalf of my constituents at Mooloolaba Marina. I have had my office follow him up seven times since 2 February asking for a meeting between my constituents, me and him to progress the Mooloolaba Marina. Not once have we had a response that said, 'This is going to be a date.' If we get any response, it is: 'Well, we're getting to it. We're getting to it.' That was 2 February.

Minister Lynham, you are a minister of the Crown. It does not matter that I am from the opposite party. It does not matter whether my constituents do not vote for your lot. Please respond to my request. Let us have a meeting, and let us try to sort out the problems that Mooloolaba Marina are encountering. It is in your patch. Thank you.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.