Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. How does the Albanese Labor government's budget address years of waste and years of rorts and provide increased infrastructure funding for regional Australia that can actually be delivered?

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson both for the question and for hosting me on the Central Coast last week. The Albanese government's budget delivers for our regions. We're doing the hard work of delivering a responsible pipeline of investment, cleaning up the mess left by those opposite in the infrastructure investment pipeline whilst increasing funding for regional projects through that pipeline. In the October budget this investment has increased by around $4 million compared with what was promised and planned by those opposite. And in the recent Senate estimates hearings it was confirmed that in the infrastructure investment pipeline over a 10-year period more than 51.9 per cent of projects are being delivered in our regions—again, more than what was planned by those opposite.

In terms of the forward estimates and the dollar amounts, projects in regional Australia received 34.2 per cent of funding in the infrastructure investment pipeline. That compares with 33.6 per cent under those opposite. So we're doing more. Over a 10-year period, in fact, the difference is even greater. In the member for Robertson's own electorate, not only are we delivering $40 million to upgrade and improve local roads around the Central Coast; we have also allocated some $30 million to upgrade Avoca Drive, and we'll be funding much-needed upgrades to facilities at Frost Reserve in Kinkumba, which I visited.

Through the budget, in stark contrast to the way in which the previous government operated, we have also committed to topping up the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure fund, specifically for regional and rural roads, because we acknowledge and understand just how much pressure our regional roads are under. That takes the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, in this round, to almost three-quarters of a billion dollars, and particularly that top-up for regional road communities.

During my visit to Robertson I also visited play spaces at Ross Park, Avoca Beach and Jirramba Reserve in Saratoga, all projects that are funded under that program. I also had the pleasure of visiting The Entrance ocean baths with the member for Dobell, where we're funding improvements, including improving the baths and a waterfront plaza play space. I also visited the Hunter region; we're investing substantially there. There is $269 million for the Muswellbrook bypass, $38.6 million for the much-needed Coulsons Creek Road upgrade and $10.5 million for the Muswellbrook town centre—an incredibly important precinct that was partly funded under previous government, and we're now making sure that those connections are made to improve the community, an incredibly important community, as it transitions. Improvements to the Muswellbrook bypass alone will improve safety. Again, this is about delivering in a much more transparent way, delivering better, delivering for our regions, and that's what the Albanese government will continue to do.