Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that Inland Rail was conceived as a nation building freight rail project connecting Melbourne and Brisbane through regional Australia;

(2) recognises that Inland Rail was designed to:

(a) reduce freight transit times between Melbourne and Brisbane from around 33 hours to under 24 hours;

(b) remove up to 200,000 truck movements from Australian roads annually;

(c) improve national fuel security by shifting freight from road to rail;

(d) reduce freight costs for Australian producers and consumers; and

(e) support jobs, investment and economic growth across regional Australia;

(3) further notes official modelling shows Inland Rail could:

(a) reduce freight transport costs by approximately $213 million annually; and

(b) significantly increase rail freight capacity between Melbourne and Brisbane;

(4) condemns the Government for:

(a) cutting and delaying Inland Rail funding;

(b) abandoning the original vision of a completed Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail corridor; and

(c) failing regional communities, freight operators, farmers and exporters who were promised a completed national freight corridor; and

(5) calls on the Government to:

(a) commit to completing the full Inland Rail corridor connecting Melbourne to Brisbane;

(b) restore certainty around project delivery and funding; and

(c) recognise Inland Rail as a critical national productivity, fuel security and regional development project.

For 10 years, families, businesses, organisations and councils have planned their lives and their futures around a project called the Inland Rail. I'll quote from the Inland Rail website. It says:

Inland Rail will enhance our national freight network and supply chain capabilities, connecting existing freight routes through rail, roads and ports, and supporting Australia's growth.

The project was first proposed in 1998 as a nation-building initiative to take trucks off our roads and to build our freight capacity and to help the progress of regional towns along the route.

About 10 years ago, the project became a certainty. Farms have been bought, businesses have been formed, and industrial parks have been planned and created. Dreams have been built around the Inland Rail. Instead, the 960-kilometre stretch from Parkes to Brisbane has now been axed, and thousands of people and businesses have been left in limbo. This, the Labor government tells us, is an economic decision. But, in the scramble to find money, this Labor government is not only further limiting the sovereignty of our nation; it is devastating livelihoods, slashing employment, destroying generational businesses and sticking the knife in the backs of regional communities. This is not economics; this is metro-centric selfishness.

Nick McClure, from a Narrabri based business called Specialised Civil Services, tells me the announcement came as a massive shock to his community of Narrabri. This business went from 85 full-time employees plus subcontractors to just 40 full-time staff after the announcement. Specialised Civil Services has invested more than $25 million in a quarry business, primarily to service the Inland Rail project. This is just one town. Jobs have been lost, millions of dollars have been lost, and there has been not a word of support from this federal Albanese Labor government. Nick McClure has a message for this government. He said:

I would like the Federal Government to explain why regional communities don't get any attention. We are the backbone of this country. This is where the money comes from—not the city—we are the exporters, we do the farming and we have the resources. It is frustrating.

No warning, no consultation and no consideration—the economic landscape has gone from one of promise and prosperity to uncertainty. I've spoken to mayors, business owners, families and farmers. They are bewildered and they are angry. The Mayor of Parkes, Neil Westcott, says the announcement was like having his arm cut off. Dubbo mayor Josh Black says the decision shows the raw deal regional Australians get. Narrabri mayor Daryl Tieman said, 'It is a wasted opportunity to create a nation-building project.' These councils and many more have worked with the federal government for decades to make this project a reality. Narromine Shire Council has supported the development of a materials distribution centre and a major industrial estate in Moree. The Moree special activation precinct, a major logistics and agribusiness hub specifically for the Inland Rail project, is now in doubt.

On 2 March this year, the Inland Rail announced that every New South Wales section of the Inland Rail had been approved. Now years of funding, years of planning, years of families and businesses going through the extended process of acquisitions, are wasted. People like the Roberts family in Narromine, who had been advised that their land would be acquired, now are left without the ability to make any plans for their future. Years of new precincts, new businesses, new jobs and years of hope—all wasted.

There is not only the economic cost but there is a human cost as well. With this announcement, 200,000 trucks will stay on the road annually, transit times will not be cut, freight costs will remain high, emissions will not be reduced, and—last and apparently least in the eyes of this government—jobs, investment and economic growth will suffer in regional Australia.

But what loss is this when a Labor government can rip money out of regions and give it to Melbourne, with another $3.8 billion for the Suburban Rail Loop. (Time expired)

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and I will speak after the member for Blair. I look forward to his comments.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion gives me the opportunity to set the record straight on Inland Rail and explain the reasoning behind the Albanese government's decision to cease construction on the project north of Parkes. The reality is Inland Rail became a case study in waste and mismanagement. It was bungled by the former coalition government from start to finish. One of the chief proponents of Inland Rail and widely called the father of Inland Rail, Everald Compton, said recently this was 'probably the worst managed infrastructure project in the history of Australia'. He acknowledged it was 'grossly mismanaged from the start politically and financially' and described it as a 'disgraceful exhibition of waste of money'.

Now here's a quick history lesson for the member for Parkes. In 2013, the former Labor government provisioned $1 billion for the planning for the Inland Rail, but it was never done after we lost government in 2013. Then in 2017, the coalition government announced a $9.3 billion plan funded by debt to build the Inland Rail without any planning or any idea about how it was going to get into the Port of Melbourne or into the Port of Brisbane. It was going to go to Acacia Ridge, for heaven's sakes, many kilometres from the Port of Brisbane. They had no idea about noise abatement and no idea about the impact on local communities. Under the former coalition government, by 2020, the cost estimate had risen to $16.4 billion—again, funded from debt.

Of course, when Labor came to office in 2022, the Australian Rail Track Corporation, or ARTC, told the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government that the project would need substantially more funding to finish it, but couldn't say how much. So the Albanese government commissioned respected infrastructure expert Dr Kerry Schott to review the project and, based on the ARTC's own figures, she found it was going to cost an additional $31.4 billion but couldn't be sure because ARTC started construction without having done the proper planning and cost assurance for where it would start and finish, or where it would stop on the way, or what it would actually carry.

So then we got ARTC and Inland Rail, having accepted all of Dr Schott's recommendations, to have another look at it. They said very clearly that the cost had blown out by $45 billion. We have an independent actuarial assurance again, which confirmed the ARTC estimate of a $45 billion cost blow-out. Frankly, the former coalition government has a lot to answer for—especially the member for New England when he was the Leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister. Even that former National Party leader, the member for Maranoa, has admitted this. That's why we made the sensible decision to get Inland Rail to Parkes by the end of 2027 as well as preserve the corridor north and protect sites for future intermodal terminals in Queensland. I can assure you of this: it wasn't a decision the government took lightly. We're not opposed to the concept of Inland Rail, freight rail or, indeed, regional development in general. It is just the opposite of what the coalition claims. The reality is that Inland Rail in its current form was simply unsustainable. There are more efficient and effective ways to support national freight tasks across regional Australia.

I can tell you that this is a very good outcome for my local community. Many residents in Blair and surrounding areas had serious concerns about the impact of Inland Rail. I heard 'high impact, low value' numerous times. These residents don't want a 1.8-kilometre long double-stacked freight train going every hour through their properties or near their properties on embankments without noise abatement, and that's precisely what they would have got. I met landholders along the proposed routes, including the Ivorys Rock convention and events centre, which brings millions of dollars into Ipswich at Peak Crossing, who raised concerns about the impact of noise and vibration from freight trains. The route was to go 500 metres from the centre. There were also concerns about the impact on local environment and wildlife, particularly around the Purga-Peak Crossing area, where the government has funded koala conservation projects. The school at Grandchester in rural Ipswich was impacted, and the population of all the township in the rural community of Rosewood would have been impacted.

Based on feedback from industry, we've committed a further $1.75 billion to improve productivity, resilience and the reliability of Australia's freight rail network alongside a $55 million incentive to get more freight off our roads and onto rail and sea. It's very interesting to hear National Party members being concerned about emissions, by the way, for the first time I've heard in nearly 20 years.

This means we can now get Inland Rail to Parkes and finally get a return on our investment. We've committed $2.8 billion in our network investment program, and it's really critical that we do it.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I like the member for Blair. I do. I visited his electorate when I was the infrastructure minister, and we looked at the Cunningham Highway. In fact, I funded the Cunningham Highway. If there is a project in this country deserving of infrastructure spending, it doesn't matter the stripe or the colour or whatever political persuasion the government of the day is; it should be funded, and Labor needs to get on board with the Inland Rail Project. It is such a good proposal. It is such a good project that Prime Minister Albanese actually took credit for it himself, and, indeed, it has been on the drawing board since the 1890s. It took a coalition government to fund it. It took a coalition government to start it—that was back in 2018—and it's taken a Labor government, surprise of all surprises, to stop it, because that's what this Labor government does. It has no vision. It has no concept about the importance of productivity, the importance of logistics.

Moreover, given the importance of regional Australia and this project, which started when the first lot of steel was dropped off at Peak Hill on 15 January in 2018, it ought to be completed. Yet, no, this government will stop this project at Parkes. I appreciate that the Parkes-Narromine section, the first of 13 sections, has been completed. However, it's mainly Parkes where it will stop. That's where the logistics hub is. That's where the road bypass has been built by a coalition government. That's where such an important rail hub is going to be and already is. And yet you talk about the number of businesses affected in this space. There's Austrak at Wagga Wagga, which was going to build the concrete sleepers for use right up and down the line. There are so many businesses so reliant on this project going ahead that are now so disappointed in this federal Labor government. Less than two per cent of new infrastructure pipeline projects announced in the budget are for the regions. What does Labor have against the regions? This is such a good project. Yes, indeed, National Party people, as the member for Blair quite correctly pointed out, are talking about emissions reduction. It was going to take 200,000 trucks off our roads. Our crumbling regional roads that have been neglected by this Labor government. Our roads that have been neglected in this budget of broken promises. If you look at the infrastructure spend of this government, it's all metrocentric. This project was going to be such a game-changer, having double-stacked freight between Brisbane and Melbourne for the first time—a concept dreamt up in the 19th century—and it was already underway.

The member for Blair talked about cost rises. Yes, there were. When I took it over it was more or less a desktop analysis, but do you know what? I took it to three state ministers. Two out of the three were Labor state ministers—Mark Bailey in Queensland and Jacinta Allan, now the Premier of Victoria. They readily signed up to it, as did John Barilaro, who was the New South Wales deputy premier at the time. They could see the value for their states. It's such a shame that Canberra cannot see it now, although we've got a Labor government in office and so no surprises there as Labor is against the regions, against infrastructure.

I cannot understand why the member for Ballarat, the current infrastructure minister, isn't in there, around the cabinet table, thumping it and saying, 'I want more money for regional Australia.' She's not, but she should be. This is one project that needs to go ahead. I say to people, get out and sign the 'rescue our rail' petition. We need to get on board and tell this Labor government that this project is one that needs to go ahead for the businesses, for the Indigenous workers, for the Australian people who've absolutely got behind it. We have to leave inland Australian rail to be completed. And that concept, that acronym, shouldn't be lost on those Labor members opposite because it spells L-I-A-R.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another fine contribution by the member for Riverina, if that's what you want to call it. For more than a decade Australians were promised a nation-building freight rail project that would transform the movement of goods across our country. What they got instead was delay, confusion, ballooning costs and a project that was fundamentally mismanaged from the very beginning. The fact of the matter is the Inland Rail project was bungled by the former coalition government from start to finish. Those opposite announced routes before proper planning had even been completed. They commenced construction without certainty around where the line would terminate, where freight would move or what the final cost to taxpayers would actually be. This was infrastructure by press release, not proper nation building.

When the coalition first announced Inland Rail in 2017, Australians were told the project would cost around $9.3 billion. By 2020 that figure had grown out to $16.4 billion. By the time we came to office in 2022, estimates had blown out beyond $31 billion—and even then there was no genuine certainty around the final cost or delivery pathway. What we inherited was a project plagued by uncertainty and poor decision-making. And perhaps the most remarkable part of this debate is that even senior figures of the former government now openly admit it.

Just 2½ weeks ago, on 2WEB Outback Radio, the former leader of the Nationals said this: 'The cost blow-out was because of a poor decision, and it was when we were in government. Barnaby Joyce was too weak to take on Malcolm Turnbull because of some local politics.' Those are not our words. Those are the words of their own side. It's an extraordinary admission that politics was placed ahead of sound infrastructure planning and, in turn, the Australian people.

That is why the Albanese government has taken the sensible and responsible approach to Inland Rail. When we came to office, we commissioned Dr Kerry Schott to undertake an independent review into the project. That review confirmed the extent of the problems we had inherited and highlighted the need for a more disciplined and sustainable approach. So we made the decision to reset the project and put it, like all sensible things related to rail, back on track. We have taken the practical decision to focus on delivering Inland Rail to Parkes by the end of 2027. We are preserving the corridor north of Parkes and protecting sites for future intermodal terminals in Queensland. Most importantly, we're ensuring future decisions are based on proper planning, proper consultation and proper value for taxpayers, because governments have a duty to ensure taxpayer money is spent responsibly, particularly at a time when Australians expect discipline, value and accountability from every dollar invested.

After years of neglect under the coalition, this government is investing $2.8 billion into the productivity, resilience and reliability of Australia's freight rail network. That includes a further $1.75 billion to improve freight rail infrastructure, alongside a $55 million incentive scheme to get more freight moved by rail and sea. This builds on the Albanese government's existing $1.04 billion commitment to upgrade the Australian Rail Track Corporation network. These are real investments that will strengthen supply chains, improve reliability and move more freight off our roads and onto rail.

Importantly, many within industry and regional Australia have welcomed this reset. Pacific National CEO, Brett Grehan, described the government's announcement as an important next step to program funding. Wes Judd, chair of the Millmerran Rail Group—

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Millmerran.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, member for Riverina. He welcomed the decision by saying: 'Choosing not to proceed is the correct decision. An unaffordable project should not come at the expense of taxpayers or thriving regional communities.' They are absolutely right. The infrastructure must deliver value for taxpayers, it must be economically sustainable and it must be built on rigorous planning, not political expediency. The former government failed that test. They failed regional communities and they failed Australian taxpayers.

We also recognise that there are councils and landowners with concerns about corridor preservation and future uncertainty. Those concerns need to be addressed with proper respect and engagement. Regional Australians deserve transparency and honesty from government, not empty promises and shifting goalposts. This is exactly what this government is delivering. We are taking sensible decisions to realign the future of Inland Rail and build a safer, more efficient and more reliable freight network for the future.

Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Energy Security and Affordability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's always a pleasure to follow my friend, the member for Spence. I'm going to speak on this issue, firstly, as the member for Groom. Probably the city that is most impacted by this decision of this Labor government is Toowoomba. The benefit that we could have reaped from this project was huge.

I'm also going to make a few comments, as someone who's had the pleasure of delivering three major rail projects around the world and has seen the challenges involved in delivering those, and make some reflections on this. One of the reasons I want to do that is to acknowledge the work of the member for Riverina. Do you know what? It's really easy to walk away from a challenge. It's really easy to give up on a project. I have seen rail projects delivered around the world. I think about the Edinburgh light rail. If you want to see a project that had trouble, google Edinburgh light rail. It shut down Edinburgh for 18 months. No-one liked it. It was a dog's breakfast. It was a horrible thing. It blew out; the time blew out. It is now the most used light rail in Europe and beloved by the city. It does a great job. They pushed through. They had incredible challenges, but they pushed through. I want to thank the member for Riverina for his work stewarding the project. It's a difficult thing to do. Instead of running away, instead of giving up and instead of lying to the Australian people and saying they were going to deliver it and then walking out, he did the hard work of trying to get this thing to work, and I thank him for that.

This project started with a promise. It started with a promise of something that we've been looking forward to in Toowoomba for over 100 years. I've got a book on Littleton Groom's speeches in this place. In the 1930s—1932—he started talking about inland rail. Of course, the Second World War took it off the infrastructure priority list at the time, and it fell away. But we saw the opportunity to connect the Darling Downs up with the southern states. That was the driving force. The first idea behind it was from men like Littleton Groom, who saw that opportunity and pursued it. So we've been talking about this for a long time.

In, I think, about 2017—the member for Riverina may remember this better than me—we started looking at exactly how we'd bring this into Toowoomba, how we'd get the most benefit for Toowoomba and for the entire Darling Downs and for Queensland to be able to have that southern link feeding down into the Port of Melbourne. There was so much work that went into that. We can talk about the Wagners out at Wellcamp and the preparations they took there, but I'm going to focus on the people at InterLinkSQ. This is a business who established a block of land for an intermodal hub, and it's right on the western line, where the Queensland rail line runs east to west, from Brisbane all the way to the far border. There's a little nook in there where Inland Rail was going to come in, and they got that piece of land. When we left office in May 2022, we had a contract signed to begin works from the border to Gowrie, which was up to that little point at that node. We had that contract signed. Work was ready to go.

On the basis of that, InterLinkSQ have invested $50 million of their own money, private money, developing that land. You can go there today and you can see it's been levelled out. They've moved massive drainage pipes that were through there. They've established road networks into it. It is perfectly laid out to be the intermodal hub that would have really driven a large part of Toowoomba's future economy. In that time, I have written to the minister 31 times, asking, 'Is this going to be delivered, and when?' And, every time, the answer was, 'Yes, it will be delivered.' I wrote six separate letters to the Prime Minister and to the minister. 'Is this going to be delivered?' 'Yes.' Those letters gave confidence to my community, and that $50 million was invested. That's just one company I'm talking about who made these investments on the back of promises from this government that have turned out to be absolutely worthless.

I am furious. I've been here five years. I have sat at the door and on the kitchen table of everyone who's raised concerns about this project, right along the line. I have spoken to them. I've made sure that they've been dealt with properly by ARTC in some cases where they weren't. I have raised every issue that I could with the government of the day and with ARTC to make sure that we got everything lined up as best we could. Every step of the way, up until a couple of weeks ago, this government promised, like the member for Blair said earlier, that they would fix this project, and we made those investments. Mr Albanese lied to us. He lied to our community, and he's taken a huge chunk of our future away from us.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I just warn the member to exercise caution in using the term 'liar'. Could you withdraw that statement, please.

Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Energy Security and Affordability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Alice Jordan-Baird (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to be here this evening contributing to this really important discussion about rail in this country. I'm honoured to be the Labor co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Rail group here at Parliament House and, I admit, a true gunzel at heart, growing up with both my parents working in the railways. I'm truly delighted to be here following some of my Labor colleagues on this side of the House who are correcting some, pretty frankly, wild things that are being said about Inland Rail from the other side of the chamber.

Inland Rail is an important investment in our freight and rail industry. It's about getting more trucks off the road and keeping our economy moving as we develop our infrastructure to meet the needs of the Australian community. And, like any major infrastructure project, proper planning and responsible economic management are crucial to its success. But, unfortunately, proper planning and responsible economic management are not words that seem to be in the coalition's vocabulary. The Inland Rail project was bungled by the previous coalition government from the very start. It was costed on the back of a napkin—uncosted, underfunded and underplanned.

Let's start at the start, shall we? When we came to government, we inherited the Inland Rail mess. The Australian Rail Track Corporation, who was building Inland Rail at the time, came to our minister for transport and infrastructure and said that this was going to need a lot more money. When the minister asked them how much, the Libs had done so little planning that they couldn't even tell her. So we decided to do something the Libs and Nats never did. We rolled up our sleeves and we decided to get the job done, drawing up real costings and real planning. We commissioned an independent, wide-ranging review of the project, led by Kerry Schott. This weighed up the costs and the scope of the project.

The outcome of this review was plain and simple. Where the Libs had left things, it was probably going to cost more than $31 billion, and that wasn't even for the full scope of the project. Further actuarial work said it would be about $45 billion. That's more than three times the cost it was originally touted for. We've also confirmed that this project could not have been delivered until at least 2036. There was no way that money was set aside or planned for by the previous coalition government. I don't think they could have fit those calculations on that napkin they were working on. Their failure to do any actual detailed planning works and their immature preliminary designs didn't solve any problems, and it certainly didn't build Inland Rail.

Thanks to the work of our Labor government, the Inland Rail works north of Parkes will continue. We're focusing on the preservation of the rail corridor and protection of sites for future intermodal terminals in Queensland, and our decision not to proceed with the entirety of the project right now is the right decision. An unaffordable project, completely botched by those opposite, should not be coming at the expense of Aussie taxpayers or thriving regional communities. What we are committed to as the Albanese Labor government is investing heavily in passenger and freight rail across the country, like continuing to invest in resilience, reliability and productivity of the ARTC's existing rail freight network.

Being from Melbourne's west, I know a thing or two about the burden freight can have on local roads and on the locals who share those roads with heavy freight trucks on their daily commutes. In my electorate of Gorton, we've got the Western Freeway—a major freight route with over 86,000 people on the road every single day. It's why we're upgrading our Western Freeway between Melton and Caroline Springs with Labor's $1 billion investment. Our Inland Rail investments will mean that, in communities similar to mine with major freight routes, more freight will move on to rail, alleviating the burden on local roads. We're also prioritising the upgrades in the places it's most needed, because Inland Rail and proper planning for major infrastructure works need to go hand in hand. The Albanese Labor government gets that. We get that. I can't say the same for the Libs and the Nats over there. We're making the difficult but sensible decision for the progression of Inland Rail, with responsible economic planning without the cost blowouts. For the communities across Australia, we'll get the job done.

Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was only about 10 or so weeks ago that I ascended to the dizzying heights of shadow assistant minister for infrastructure. So I am quite certain, listening to the contributions tonight, that the former infrastructure minister here, the member for Riverina, has forgotten more about infrastructure than I currently know. But, in my glittering 10 weeks in this portfolio, the failures of this government, as it sets about ripping the guts out of infrastructure funding for regional Australia, have become abundantly clear. We have a tale of two railways in Australia right now.

This $45 billion productivity boosting, nation-building project, spanning some three states and boosting our freight capacity for the future, is somehow unaffordable, but the $200 billion pipe dream that is the Suburban Rail Loop, servicing only suburban Melbourne, is somehow worthy of $6 billion of federal money and counting. Let's just go through the numbers piece by piece, because the $6.15 billion cut from the Inland Rail project is not an isolated decision, as I said, but just one indication of this government's determination to rip the guts out of regional infrastructure spending.

Not only have we seen $4.7 billion cut from infrastructure spending overall—and, indeed, in the other place right now, Senator Mckenzie is forensically examining the department on exactly where those cuts have been made—but we've seen significant reductions in regional communications, the National Water Grid, pest and disease programs and drought and trade support, meaning that regional Australia is carrying some $11 billion in cuts. Meanwhile, there's still $18.2 billion for net zero fantasies, including more than $1 billion for the green hydrogen dream that even prominent mining billionaires who've thrown a lot of money into that have walked away from, and there's $6 billion for the Suburban Rail Loop. One wonders, when there are estimates of between $15 billion and $30 billion of public money already siphoned off into organised crime in Victoria, whether that is a prudent use of Commonwealth taxpayer money. The juxtaposition against this project, which admittedly has had some challenges—as I say, spanning three states and dreamed of for a century now in Australia—is inexplicable.

Where we've got funding continuing to flow into the other states as costs spiral out of control but only in metropolitan areas, the failure of this government to stand up for regional Australia, as it claims to do, becomes clear. Victoria's North East Link was originally $15.6 billion. It's now blown out to $26 billion and counting, a 67 per cent increase. Despite that, the Commonwealth has increased its own contribution by $5 billion. If they wanted to reach around in the bottom drawer and find money the way that this mob spend it, I'm sure this project could have been completed. But, as I say, there's no focus on productive freight infrastructure. Instead, there are billions upon billions for high-risk metropolitan projects riddled with organised crime and CFMEU linked thuggery. Where are the economic returns and the productive assessments of these projects? It seems that the independent analysis of the Suburban Rail Loop suggests that there is a net return of less than 50c in the dollar.

This is a government that promised to link infrastructure spend to productivity and to take the politics out of it. Well, I think tonight we are seeing again that we shouldn't listen to what Labor say. Look at what Labor governments do. Their budget papers further show that they are ripping the guts out of Western Australia's Commonwealth infrastructure spend in some sort of underhanded way to offset the GST deal that they claim to stand behind. Western Australia's infrastructure spend has gone from $3.45 billion just in the 2025-26 budget papers to $1.5 billion. Where has the money gone, Minister and Treasurer? Again, it seems to me that regional Australia and the powerhouse state that is WA are being made to pay for these suburban follies.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.