Senate debates

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Matters of Public Importance

Urban Planning

4:59 pm

Photo of Matt ThistlethwaiteMatt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When one travels around the world and visits global cities, you appreciate how well we have done in Australia when it comes to planning and urban development, particularly the planning of our big cities. Anyone who returns home to Sydney would appreciate that Sydney is probably the best city in the world. There is nothing like flying in over Sydney Harbour and seeing that golden jewel of a harbour, the wonderful beaches and the large metropolis that is Sydney. We really have got it right when it comes to planning and urban development. If you look at big global cities like Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York or London, they all have congestion and smog, and people predominantly live in high-rises without backyards and there is very little green space. In Australia, these are things that we cherish and come through in our urban development and planning laws. I think you can say that in Australia we have planned and developed well. But we cannot take what we have for granted.

There are challenges in urban development and in maintaining the liveability of our cities—and by liveability, I mean affordability of housing; jobs that are close to where people live so they do not have to travel for hours each day to get to work; adequate public transport that delivers people in a clean, on-time environment; affordable renewable energy; and access to leisure and green spaces. Labor believe that the federal government should play an active role in urban development. Indeed, it probably was a Labor government that first took an active role in our nation's urban development when the Whitlam government established the Department of Urban and Regional Development.

Labor are committed to better urban planning, better development and greater liveability of our cities. That stands in stark contrast to the opposition. What is the approach of the opposition? Their approach was enunciated in a recent comment by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Tony Abbott, who stated: 'Transport infrastructure is a state responsibility. The Commonwealth government should no more have to fund it than a state government should have to buy new tanks for the Army.' That is the approach of the coalition when it comes to urban development. 'We won't worry about it. We'll wash our hands of it and just hand it all over to the states'—a beautiful little hospital pass. Haven't the states done a wonderful job with urban development! Isn't Campbell Newman doing a wonderful job with protection of the environment in Queensland!

Labor believe that the federal government should take a role in urban development and that is why Labor developed a national urban policy. For the first time in our nation's history, a national government has a clearly articulated set of aspirations for our cities, and it is delivered and updated through the annual report State of Australian Cities, which reports on the progress that we are making on national urban policy.

This is an area that has traditionally been covered by the states but Labor believe that it should be a partnership—the state governments working with the national government to deliver better planning and urban development. Through this national urban policy, we are working with the states and territories to improve urban planning. It includes preserving future transport corridors, a better balance between land release and urban infill, climate change mitigation, better urban design to reduce water and energy usage and preparedness for the ageing of the population. We are doing that in a collaborative manner, just as we are doing it in a collaborative manner when it comes to infrastructure development in this country through the Infrastructure Australia model, where organisations are able to put in bids that are assessed by an independent body. It is all about improving the productivity of our economy.

But there are some challenges in urban development, particularly when it comes to transport. In Sydney now, it is almost impossible in peak hour to tell someone what time you are going to get to a meeting. You could be one hour either side because of transport congestion. Unfortunately, I think the current Liberal government has missed the mark when it comes to transport and fixing some of those problems—but that is another issue.

Over the next 20 years, Labor have committed to working with state governments to fix some of our transport problems, particularly when it comes to freight transport and getting freight off our roads. Much of the investment that we have made in this area has been about improving the accessibility of freight on rail and decoupling some of the entanglement that occurs between passenger rail lines and freight rail lines. Over the next 20 years, the amount of freight carried in Australia will double and that will mean that there will be extra pressure on our transport system. We are working to ensure that we are detangling the bottlenecks that have existed and we are doing this in a number of areas.

With regard to roads, we have doubled the roads budget since we came to office and that has meant that we are constructing more than 7,500 kilometres of new and upgraded lanes throughout the country. This is in addition to more than 14,000 local government road projects under the Roads to Recovery program, 2,000 black spot projects and 350 heavy vehicle safety and productivity projects. In my state of New South Wales, the Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane is being upgraded. Two major works are underway: the Pacific Highway bypass at Kempsey and the Pacific Highway bypass at Bulahdelah. As we speak, there are 1,300 people working on those bypass projects in New South Wales and they are being funded by this federal Labor government.

On rail, we have had a massive investment in new rail infrastructure. We have increased the investment in rail in this country tenfold since we came to office compared to the time of the Howard government. We have ended the previous curfew which operated during peak morning and afternoon periods for road rail from Port Botany because the passenger line received priority. We began construction on the North Sydney freight corridor project. We are investing in the development of the Moorebank intermodal terminal, which will take about 3,300 trucks off Sydney's roads everyday and will create 700 jobs. Recently, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport opened the southern Sydney freight line, a $1 billion investment aimed at detangling that bottleneck infrastructure that traditionally existed between passenger and freight rail in this country. Another big issue in Sydney is of course a second Sydney airport. When you go to the airport now at 5.30 in the morning you will get caught in traffic around Sydney airport. You will be guaranteed to get caught in a traffic jam. Passenger numbers going through the airport will double by 2035. Most global cities have two airports, and it is simply unacceptable for Australia not to be looking at a second airport for Sydney. Unfortunately, the approach of the O'Farrell government again has been: 'We don't need a second Sydney airport. It's not our problem. We won't worry about it. We'll wait until sometime into the future.' That is the approach of the Liberals.

Another important issue regarding liveability and urban development is the environment and access to green space. In New South Wales the contrast is stark when it comes to protection of the environment and promotion of green space. The Carr Labor government declared more marine parks and more new national parks than any other government in history. What has been the approach of the Liberals? The Liberals have allowed people to shoot in them. They have allowed people to shoot in national parks. That is their approach to saving the environment: to allow people to go shooting in national parks in New South Wales.

If you go down in the woods today in New South Wales, be sure of a big surprise. And, if you go down in the woods today, you better not go in disguise, Senator Joyce. You better not go dressed as a kangaroo, you better not go dressed as a bear, you better not go dressed as a possum, because there will be someone there to ping you off and shoot you right through the nose. That is what the approach is in New South Wales. Who is there to load the gun for you? None other than New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell and his bumbling Minister for the Environment, Robyn Parker. They are loading the gun for you as shooters ping off people in the national parks. That is the approach of the Liberal government when it comes to the protection of our environment. It is a stark contrast between Labor, who are protecting the environment, and the Liberals in the New South Wales, who are allowing people to shoot.

You also have the likes of Andrew Stoner with an Uzi or something like that, spraying bullets around and taking out kangaroos and bears and things like that— (Time expired)

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