David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on the cost to regional Australia of failed border protection measures? What is at risk from different approaches to managing our borders?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyne for his question. The answer to his question is all about opportunity cost. Opportunity cost: what we've lost in infrastructure when Labor was in government, because of the lost opportunities that could have happened, had we not been spending, had they not be spending and had the Commonwealth not been spending money on 19 detention centres and money on cleaning up the mess that they left in immigration, on their weak border measures.

I'm asked about infrastructure. When I was in my early ministry, I visited Amberley RAAF base, in the member for Blair's electorate. I'm glad that the member for Blair has been taken out of witness protection in question time today! The group captain there said, 'If ever you get the opportunity, if you're the minister for roads, I'd like you to do something about the Amberley interchange—the Cunningham highway.' Not because it was politically expedient to do so but because it was the right thing to do, we funded, in last year's budget, $170 million for the Cunningham Highway. Had I ever received or had previous transport and infrastructure ministers ever received correspondence from the member for Blair? Probably not. I certainly didn't. But you know what? We funded it because it was the right thing to do, because the group captain said to me, 'You know what? If that road isn't funded, one day there's going to be a dreadful accident there.' We funded it. It wasn't even on the Queensland Labor priority list. Yes, he nods. Yes, he nods, but the member for Blair never raised it. We did because it was the right thing to do.

Senator Stoker was there when we visited that site. The member for Maranoa was there—he joins Blair at Kingaroy. He knew that it was the right thing to do. Did the member for Blair ever once—did he ever when he served in the Rudd Gillard years, when $16 billion was being wasted, was being blown away on immigration—put up his hand and say, 'I'd like money for the Amberley interchange; I'd like money for the Cunningham Highway between Yamanto and Ebenezer Creek'? Did he ever once say that? I doubt it. I doubt that he ever went into caucus and fought hard for it.

Often we hear from the member for McEwen, the good old member for McEwen, who's talking about phones and mobile coverage. Not one phone tower did your side of government, when you were in government, ever fund. But you know what? There are 687 mobile phone towers that we have funded and 671 of them that we have installed. That's because we get on with the job of making sure that we spend the right amount of money on infrastructure. You know why we do it? Because we've got tight borders because of the Prime Minister, when he was the immigration minister, and the Minister for Home Affairs now, because they have been tough on borders. They've made sure that we have tightened up our borders. That's what we do. We don't waste $16 billion on weak borders, like you did.