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 inform the House how the Morrison-McCormack government, through investment in critical infrastructure, is providing a pathway to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. The member for Lyne works hard creating jobs in his electorate. I know how hard he works for local government, ensuring that that they've got the money, the funds, federally gained, to help with the local roads and community infrastructure projects and programs that are rolling out across his electorate. He knows that the recovery and the relief efforts out of COVID-19 are going to ensure jobs in his electorate, and throughout the other 536 local government areas of this nation, which are going to be so vital for that pathway out. In Lyne, the infrastructure program is rolling out, as it is across the rest of the nation—$100 billion over the next decade. We want to put in place the roads, the rail, the airports—all the infrastructure that's going to help ensure that we get through this crisis. Millions of dollars will be spent across local government areas in the Lyne electorate, and the member for Lyne is fighting hard for those jobs. Eighty-five thousand jobs—that's what the 10-year plan, the blueprint, the vision, that we have for our nation is supporting.

There's no better example of the Australian government's Infrastructure Investment Program than the 1,700-kilometre 'corridor of commerce', the Inland Rail. It is ensuring that regional New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are going to have 24-hour access to the ports of Melbourne and Brisbane. Some of the 16,000 jobs that that project is supporting have been realised in the Parkes to Narromine section. I was there on 15 January 2018, when the first shipment of steel—Whyalla steel, Australian steel; that's Australian jobs—was dropped off at Peak Hill for the start of that project. Already, OneSteel in Whyalla has supplied 14,000 tonnes for the Parkes to Narromine section and nearly 25,000 tonnes for Narrabri to North Star. As construction of a further 12 sections of the Inland Rail continues, that means more jobs. That means regional Australia is going to be benefiting from this absolutely nation-building piece of infrastructure.

Stephen Stewart of SLS Transport in Geurie, south-east of Dubbo, said: 'We've put on an extra five staff. We've been able to invest in some of the extra plant equipment. We've always tried to spend locally on repairs and maintenance to help the community.' That's what they do. That's a great little small business, just like the small businesses in the member for Lyne's electorate. They benefit when we spend money in local councils, through local procurement and through making sure that those small businesses have the support, federally gained, from the programs and projects that we're rolling out. These projects are vital to the pathway to recovery; these projects are important for regional Australia.