PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr VENNING (Grey) (12:35): This motion does a great deal of self-congratulating for a government with very little to show for it. This motion proclaims that the government is improving road safety and delivering the infrastructure that Australia needs. That may be the rhetoric in here, but it is not the reality in regional South Australia.
The electorate of Grey covers more than 90 per cent of South Australia. Almost everything moves by road—grain, livestock, iron ore, seafood, wine, opals or the local school bus. They are travelling on roads and they deserve to travel on safe roads.
In 2023, the Albanese Labor government cut the Commonwealth funding share for major road projects from 80-20 to fifty-fifty. For too long, South Australia has received the lowest road funding in the nation on a per kilometre basis. These funding deficiencies hit my constituents the hardest.
When it comes to regional South Australia, the Albanese Labor government is not delivering. They are walking away. The consequences of these cuts is not hard to see.
Despite Canberra slashing its funding, the work must go on. Corners are being cut, and roads are being built to a lower standard. They are quite literally falling apart faster than they can be repaired.
If you want to see craters, skip NASA and drive into my electorate. It is basically the lunar landing. Roads are not made like they used to be.
Highway 1 between Lochiel and Port Wakefield is the prime example. A new dual carriageway opened last year, and it is already totalled. This motion also commends the government for strengthening freight productivity, yet every tonne of grain that traverses my electorate travels on a road that the Albanese Labor government has cut funding to.
I do not need to poke holes in this government's delivery of roads. The roads do it for me. But the fairer test is to put that record beside the one before it.
Under the former coalition government, more than $1 billion went into the roads of Grey. That did not happen by accident, either. It happened because, unlike those opposite, we on this side of the chamber realise the country does not stop at the edge of a capital city.
We funded regional roads. Those opposite cut funding and commend themselves in motions like this. But the coffers have not run dry.
This government has never had trouble spending money. It just spends it elsewhere. While the Albanese Labor government cannot find funding for the roads of Grey, they have recently managed to find another $3.8 billion to chip into Victoria's Big Build.
We know what happens to money on the Big Build. At least 15 per cent of the cost blowouts on those projects have been put down to CFMEU corruption. On $3.8 billion, that is $570 million of taxpayer money down the drain, all to systemic corruption in Victoria's construction sector.
Think about what $570 million could do for the roads of the Grey electorate. Instead, it's gone to the CFMEU and organised crime. While Labor governs for the cities, the coalition delivers for the nation.
Before I conclude, it's worth going through what this motion actually says. It recognises the government. It acknowledges the government.
It commends the government. It then notes the government, further notes the government and further commends the government. While Labor feel the need to congratulate themselves, what Australia needs is a change of government.
Only a coalition government will invest in the nation-building infrastructure our nation and region need—roads, ports, energy and water. The choice at the next election is clear: an Albanese Labor government focused on congratulating themselves or a coalition government with a plan to deliver.