Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Antic for his question and his keen interest in seeing better infrastructure built in his home state. There is one role that government can play in our economy, and that is building infrastructure around our country. That's why we are managing the nation's budget carefully. That's why we are making sure we are careful spending other people's money, so that we can spend record amounts of investment in infrastructure to build a better country. That is why we are investing over $100 billion in 130 projects, creating over 80,000 jobs across Australia, and lots of that is happening in South Australia too.

In South Australia, in this year's budget, an additional $2.6 billion was allocated to infrastructure projects—part of the broader infrastructure package for South Australia. That package includes $4.5 billion to upgrade the north-south corridor. It includes $361 million for the Urban Congestion Fund just in South Australia. It includes $260 million for the Rural Roads Safety package. It includes $220 million for the Gawler rail line infrastructure upgrade as well. That is just in our existing portfolio package.

But we are also making sure that we can bring forward this investment as soon as possible to help create jobs in our economy and get our states moving, including South Australia. That's why last month we announced that we'd bring forward $78 million of infrastructure spending in the Adelaide and metro region of South Australia and that we would also bring forward $250 million of projects in regional South Australia as well. They include, as I mentioned, the Rural Roads Safety program that we are funding and bringing forward funding on the Victor Harbor Road and Horrocks corridor as well. All of these investments will create jobs and opportunity and build a better South Australia.