MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE - Infrastructure: Regional Australia

It was so interesting to hear the member for Gippsland lead off on this matter of public importance. He held up a blank sheet of paper and tried to say to Labor, the new government, that that's what we have achieved in infrastructure. Really I think he was actually just holding up a record of the last 10 years, primarily in infrastructure—their absolutely failed attempt.

It was also interesting to hear him say that the current minister for infrastructure has achieved nothing. Well, I could actually hold up a number of press releases, but I know how the chair feels about props, so I'm not going to be quite that flamboyant. But there are a number of things we can talk about that, in just 12 months, we have achieved in the infrastructure space. To my mind, one of the most important achievements is that we have been able to fix Infrastructure Australia. The minister for infrastructure has said: 'Hang on a minute: this organisation was supposed to be the peak body that led the priorities for the big infrastructure projects that we needed.'

I can remember that not long after I was elected I went along to an Infrastructure Australia announcement under those opposite, when they were in government, and I was aghast. I looked at the document that had been produced, and it was like this endless shopping list of projects for which they had not attributed any budgetary funds whatsoever. I thought, 'How is this ever going to be built?' Then we got to government and the minister spent time and looked over it and said exactly that. She said that what they came up with was lots of glossy brochures—an enormous shopping list of things that needed to be done.

We don't have any argument with those opposite: there is a lot of infrastructure to be built in Australia. We're a big country with a small population, and we've got to build more infrastructure. On that I agree. But we've got to get those priorities right, and bodies like Infrastructure Australia should absolutely be doing the big priorities. I commend the minister on that, because it is important that we get back to identifying those big priorities. One of them is so important to me and the people of the Hunter region more broadly and to my seat of Paterson particularly. It is the M1 between Sydney and Brisbane. I and the member for Newcastle, who is sitting in the chair at the moment, share the last choke point between Sydney and Brisbane. But it's not only Sydney and Brisbane. It's trucks, particularly, on the Golden Highway heading outside towards areas not far from the member for Riverina. They're trying to get their wheat across to the Port of Newcastle. There are all manner of products and commodities trying to get from west to east in Australia that must come through Tarro, Beresfield and the Hexham Straight to get to the Port of Newcastle, and it is a colossal choke point.

I am so proud to say that the minister for infrastructure came to my seat last week and made the announcement that we would be spending, in total, $2.1 billion to fix the Hexham Strait and also build the 15 kilometres of road between Black Hill and Raymond Terrace for the M1 extension. I've spoken about this in parliament so often. You get to Beresfield if you've come from Sydney and you get to the end of the M1. You sit at a set of traffic lights. You have to turn right, go over a sweeping overpass, and then you usually sit in traffic to go over the railway bridge, which I think is close to 80 or 90 years old. It's a danger, actually. People have been killed on it. Well, we've finally made the decision. The drill holes are being done as we speak. It is starting.

Finally, I want to speak about Newcastle Airport. And I will give the former deputy prime minister some props for this. He listened to me when I advocated for that when he was last in government, and I sincerely thank him for that. And our Prime Minister came last week and did the turning of the sod. We are building that project. So, for anyone on that side to say that Labor doesn't represent the regions—it is just a fallacy. We fight for them every day.