Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008. I am very pleased to be talking about infrastructure in this chamber. I have spoken before, in the Main Committee, about the importance of investment in infrastructure in my electorate of Petrie. Investing in Australia’s infrastructure is one of the most important investments we can make in this country. The Rudd Labor government is in the job of nation building. You cannot build a nation without investing in infrastructure. But internationally we face a global slowing of the economy. Many countries, including Japan, Germany, France and the US, have recorded negative growth in recent quarters, and other countries are experiencing zero growth. Domestically, the Howard government left Australia with inflation at a 16-year high. After 10 consecutive interest rate rises, Australia had the second highest interest rates in the developed world, and Australia faces severe capacity restraints due to the lack of investment in health, education, training and infrastructure.

All of this has resulted in pressure on businesses to maintain their competitive advantage and to grow. It has also, importantly, resulted in the average family suffering increasing financial pressures. The Howard government and its Treasurer, the member for Higgins, imposed an average of $400 per month on the average family through increased mortgage repayments as a result of the consecutive interest rate rises. The Howard government did nothing to put downward pressure on inflation and consequently on interest rates. Quite simply, it failed to invest in Australia’s future.

In addition, Australia is facing a serious skills shortage in many occupations across a large number of industries. Our schools are crying out for teachers in maths and science. Our health system is crying out for doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Our blue-collar industries—manufacturing, construction, mechanical, electrical and plumbing—are all in need of more skilled workers. And many other professional occupations, including engineers, are in need of more trained people. This is a snapshot of what we are currently dealing with—domestically, as part of the global economy and as a country seeking to maintain itself as a country with vision and as a nation builder.

For the past 12 years, Australia has experienced an influx of revenue from the resources boom, yet the Howard government failed to take advantage of this additional wealth in our country to ensure that investment in the future occurred. It failed to invest in health, education and transport infrastructure and failed to address the need for investment in training to ensure the best skilled workforce for a growing economy.

As a country, we need to look to the future with long-term strategies to ensure we can compete on the global stage. Australia needs to invest in human capital: in education, from early childhood through to tertiary, and in training for both young people and adults, to ensure portability of skills and the multiskilling of Australia’s workforce. This needs to occur to ensure that we can deal with the rapid change of occupations and the skills needed—the fact that many people have a number of careers in their lifetime—and to ensure that we can provide the highest level of skilled workers to grow productivity and thus grow the economy. In investing in human capital, we need to ensure that we look after that capital. We need to invest in fair workplace laws for the future, laws that provide for wages and conditions for workers and appropriate flexibility for businesses. We need to get the balance right.

Of course, we also need to invest in infrastructure. In the area of roads, as a federal government we are responsible for our national highways across this country. Our responsibility should not stop there. We need to work in partnership with the states and local governments to ensure adequate investment in improving our state and local roads as well. In the area of rail, in a country the size of Australia we cannot leave it to the states to simply run their own rail systems without ensuring that we have a national gauge system that can transport freight and people around our country. And much more needs to be done in the area of investing in public transport, for not only cost but also environmental reasons.

In the area of broadband, as a country we cannot compete internationally if we are not able to respond at the speed needed and with the technology needed in today’s society. Australia’s broadband system is behind those of most developed countries. The economic impact of outdated IT is obvious. Businesses both small and large rely heavily on accessing fast broadband. Those companies wanting to compete on the national and international stage cannot do so with a broadband system that does not allow rapid response to the needs of business. This affects productivity within businesses and their ability to compete.

At a much more basic level, the lack of more fast broadband access is preventing many people in normal households from making life that little bit easier. The fact is, by having fast broadband at home, people can get access to information at their fingertips, opening the door for people to further their education through remote learning courses, for schoolchildren to get access to important research for assignments or for people to simply pay their bills quickly and easily. This may not sound like much, but, if you are a person with a disability or mobility problems, the ability to do many day-to-day activities via the internet can make your life that little bit easier.

The Howard government, in relation to roads, simply tinkered around the edges, ignored our national highways and did not adequately enter into partnerships with our states to build new roads and road infrastructure. We have just heard from the member for Cook, who is asking this government to help, through Infrastructure Australia, to finally build the F6 expansion, an expansion that apparently has been on the books since 1951. This is further evidence that the Howard government sat back for 12 years doing nothing on this project—no long-term strategy. The Howard government, through its inaction, let down the business community and individuals both nationally and at a local level. It failed to invest in rail to link our cities and regions, and it failed to invest in broadband.

Why is investment in infrastructure so important? As I have already stated, it builds a nation and it strengthens an economy. In south-east Queensland the Queensland government is currently investing $1.9 million to upgrade the Gateway Motorway—the only north-south bypass of Brisbane—to six and eight lanes. Up until November 2007 the federal government had not committed any funding towards this important road project. There remained a missing link between the Bruce Highway and the Pacific Motorway; with the current link only four lanes, motorists would be stuck in traffic jams. Already up to 70,000 motorists use these sections of road every day—and certainly many in my electorate do. If we do nothing, by 2012 over 94,000 commuters will be sitting in daily traffic jams. Without an upgraded link to the Bruce Highway and Pacific Motorway, truckies from the port and airport—the fastest-growing industry and trade precinct in Australia—will struggle to meet their schedules, pushing up costs for consumers.

The Rudd Labor government has immediately provided $10 million to kick-start urgent planning on the Gateway Motorway’s two missing links—the second link being the 4.5 kilometre Mount Gravatt-Capalaba Road to the Pacific Highway link. The construction of the missing links will mean that Queensland motorists will have a first-class arterial road linking the Pacific Motorway to the Bruce Highway. The Rudd government made a commitment in the federal budget to reduce the traffic congestion on this busy highway once and for all. For 12 long years the Howard government refused to commit to building the two missing links—leaving Queenslanders with a road that was half built. The investment by the Rudd Labor government will fund critical pre-construction activities, such as community consultation, geotechnical surveys, design, environmental assessments and land acquisition—and consultation has already commenced. From 2009-10, an additional $195 million will be invested in pre-construction funding for these links under the AusLink 2 investment program. Kick-starting this critical planning work means that the construction of the missing links could be ready to begin as soon as 2011.

As we know, the Ipswich Motorway and the Bruce Highway through Central and Northern Queensland have also been neglected for far too long. The Australian community and the Queensland community now have a federal government that is willing to act on these issues, and in the first nine months of government the Rudd Labor government has commenced that action.

Back at a local level, in my electorate of Petrie, the Queensland government has commenced the construction of the Houghton Highway Bridge duplication. Of course, with this new bridge, further improvements in road infrastructure from the bridge to the Gateway Motorway on the Houghton Highway will need to be assessed. And I look forward to having discussions with the three levels of government on the need for improved infrastructure.

Another issue that is extremely important in my electorate, as with other growth areas around Brisbane, is public transport and the need for all levels of government to invest in this area. What the outer northern metropolitan areas of Brisbane need is a fully integrated public transport system. The Howard government made improvements to the Bruce Highway from Carseldine up through Pine Rivers and further to Caboolture. The problem is that the previous federal government failed to work with the state and local governments to plan for dedicated bus lanes or an improved rail system for the area. Infrastructure like this is not just beneficial for business but also essential to ensure mobility of people in our community for training and employment opportunities. It is also an important investment in the challenge of reducing carbon emissions through the reduction of vehicles on our roads. With the growth in areas suh as Pine Rivers, Mango Hill and North Lakes and with the lack of adequate public transport on the Redcliffe Peninsula, public transport infrastructure such as new rail lines and dedicated bus lanes is critical to the future sustainability of the area.

That is why investing in infrastructure for our future is so important. The bill now before the House is another step forward in building this nation. This bill has two important elements: amending the definition of ‘road’ so as to put beyond doubt that projects for the development of off-road facilities used by heavy vehicles in connection with travel on the road may be funded, and extending the Roads to Recovery program until 30 June 2014. The first of these elements will increase safety for heavy vehicle drivers, making it safer for those people performing the important task of moving products around this country. It will also make our roads safer for the broader community. Too many lives have been lost to heavy vehicle accidents. As a federal government we must do whatever we can to save lives on our roads.

On the extension of the Roads to Recovery funding, I welcome—as do my local councils—the additional funding to go into our local roads. I was pleased to see in the most recent announcements of the budget figures for 2008-09 for Roads to Recovery that one of my councils in the electorate of Petrie, the Moreton Bay Regional Council, will receive $3.6 million in Roads to Recovery funding. As one of the new amalgamated councils, with over 300,000 constituents in it, I am sure that funding will be well received by the council. I certainly look forward to working closely with the consultant group that the council has engaged on road safety issues. They have already come to meet with me to talk about important safety initiatives on our local roads.

I have to say that I am very, very passionate about making sure that the roads outside of our schools are made as safe as possible to ensure that our children can go to school safely, and I look forward to talking with my local councils about ensuring that we achieve that. I also have many constituents coming to meet with me to talk about the need for traffic calming around their suburban streets. This is another issue that I look forward to talking with my council representatives about, and I look forward to seeing the Roads to Recovery funding really delivering for the local community. Having federal government and local government working directly with each other to build on our infrastructure is an important obligation that we must continue to support. That is why I am so pleased to see as part of this bill an extension of the Roads to Recovery funding to 2014. I acknowledge all of the projects that have been funded in my electorate since the implementation of this program in November 2000 and look forward to working with my councils, through the mayors and local councillors, to see the improvements in our local roads over the coming years. Building a nation requires investment. This bill works towards that aim, and I commend it to the House.

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