Mrs MILLER - 2005-08-25
Yesterday, in the Infrastructure Report Card, roads failed and failed miserably. You have failed to maintain our roads for four years. Despite that, the Treasurer took $10m out of your capital works budget and put it into recurrent spending. Without blaming the feds, which you always do, why are you cutting capital funding from our roads?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Katherine for her question. Talk about leading with your chin! For the last year or so, we have been very fair and square on the record about the shortfall in Commonwealth funding for our roads. In fact, we missed out on $20m over four years under the Roads to Recovery program. The member for Katherine was part of the debate where this House unanimously passed a motion, where the former member for Brennan, Mr Burke, and I wrote a letter to the Commonwealth government on this very issue asking for the backlog of funding for our roads.
This government has put extra money into roads year after year. We have a record …
Mr Mills interjecting.
Dr BURNS: … infrastructure program that we have been …
Mr Mills: You took two years.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Blain!
Dr BURNS: … investing in our roads network. The member for Katherine mentioned $10m. Well, that rang a bell in my mind, because we put $10m extra into our beef roads, in consultation with the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association and with agreement about where the priority areas would be. Now, the Commonwealth haves come back to us, cutting our funding for repairs and maintenance. Historically, it has been approximately $19m per annum. They have cut it down to about $14m or $15m. So, here is the Commonwealth cutting the road funding,. tThey are also cutting our ability to be flexible with our roads funding. They are trying to tie us in to their industrial relations fiasco of tying Australian workplace agreements into road contracting, and the member for Katherine has the gall to get up and talk about roads funding. She has been quoting the Infrastructure Report Card – it is not about roads, it is about electricity. It says:
How is that relevant, Madam Speaker?
Members interjecting.
Mr Mills: Your own Treasurer took $10m off it.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Blain!
Dr BURNS: Because, iIf they were in government, they would be pulling money out of roads and putting it into their wretched power line!
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Katherine for her question. Talk about leading with your chin! For the last year or so, we have been very fair and square on the record about the shortfall in Commonwealth funding for our roads. In fact, we missed out on $20m over four years under the Roads to Recovery program. The member for Katherine was part of the debate where this House unanimously passed a motion, where the former member for Brennan, Mr Burke, and I wrote a letter to the Commonwealth government on this very issue asking for the backlog of funding for our roads.
This government has put extra money into roads year after year. We have a record …
Mr Mills interjecting.
Dr BURNS: … infrastructure program that we have been …
Mr Mills: You took two years.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Blain!
Dr BURNS: … investing in our roads network. The member for Katherine mentioned $10m. Well, that rang a bell in my mind, because we put $10m extra into our beef roads, in consultation with the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association and with agreement about where the priority areas would be. Now, the Commonwealth haves come back to us, cutting our funding for repairs and maintenance. Historically, it has been approximately $19m per annum. They have cut it down to about $14m or $15m. So, here is the Commonwealth cutting the road funding,. tThey are also cutting our ability to be flexible with our roads funding. They are trying to tie us in to their industrial relations fiasco of tying Australian workplace agreements into road contracting, and the member for Katherine has the gall to get up and talk about roads funding. She has been quoting the Infrastructure Report Card – it is not about roads, it is about electricity. It says:
- Recent political discussion has emerged regarding an inter-connector between Queensland network and the Darwin-Katherine system. However, this is not economically viable due to the high operating costs of the transmission line and small contestable market share compared to the eastern states.
How is that relevant, Madam Speaker?
Members interjecting.
Mr Mills: Your own Treasurer took $10m off it.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Blain!
Dr BURNS: Because, iIf they were in government, they would be pulling money out of roads and putting it into their wretched power line!
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016