The need for Rail on the Northern Beaches

My electorate is home to a sun-swept coastline of known and unknown natural beauty. It is also home to some of New South Wales's worst traffic. Three of the 10 most congested roads in New South Wales are either on the northern beachers of Sydney or feed into the northern beaches of Sydney. It is a place of lifters, not leaners. In 2014-15, my constituents paid net tax of $1.9 billion. The average electorate pays $1.3 billion in tax. My electorate pays 46 per cent more tax than the average. We give so much, and we ask for so little.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

Mr FALINSKI: You will enjoy this next paragraph, Member for Grayndler. The New South Wales government is currently building $75 billion of infrastructure projects and has announced $120 billion more. This is vital investment, required after 16 years of Labor neglect, corruption and incompetence under Bob Carr; Morris lemma; Nathan Rees; my favourite Sky interviewer, Kristina Keneally; and, of course, those saints of the Labor Party in New South Wales and de facto premiers, Eddie Obeid, Ian Macdonald and Joe Tripodi, when nothing happened.

The member for Grayndler, who was warned by the Deputy Speaker to be orderly—go gently on him, Deputy Speaker Hastie—cannot get a word in downstairs, so he comes up here out of a sense of frustration.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

Mr FALINSKI: He is trying to give the people—we have almost forgotten what he sounds like, so it is good. In my electorate, where five years ago it took 30 minutes to travel to the CBD it can now take over an hour. The lost productivity through this traffic congestion is $9 billion per year and rising. One project which will ease traffic congestion on the northern beaches is a metro from Chatswood to Frenchs Forest. It would take cars off the road, put families around dinner tables rather than in traffic jams and markedly improve the quality of life of not only my constituents but people right across Sydney.

I am proud that the Turnbull government is committed to playing its part in investment in vital infrastructure in New South Wales and right around Australia. The Australian government will invest $10 billion over the next decade for the national rail passenger program—

Mr Albanese interjecting—

Mr FALINSKI: which will fund transformational rail projects, Member for Grayndler—transformational, something the Labor Party has never been able to do—

Mr FALINSKI: The members opposite mention the NBN. They got it past, I think, a few homes in Tamworth. We just took it past 5.1 million homes. They would not know a transformational infrastructure project if it painted itself fluorescent purple and danced on their noses naked! An additional $30 million will be provided to fund the development of a business case for the Melbourne Airport rail link. We will work with the Victorian government to access potential further funding for this project from the $10 billion national rail passenger program. The government will connect regional centres to our capital cities—always a good thing—with faster, more-reliable rail services, with regional Australia getting its fair share of the new $10 billion national rail passenger program. The budget builds on funding for significant rail projects, such as $95 million for the Gold Coast light rail, in Queensland; $490 million for the Forrestfield-Airport Link, in Perth; $42.8 million for the Flinders Link; $365 million, by way of equity, for the $1.9 billion Moorebank Intermodal Terminal, in Sydney; as well as the recently-announced $792 million towards projects for Perth's metropolitan rail network, part of a $2.3 billion road and rail package for the Western Australian government.

The government is working with the states to develop urban rail plans or our five largest cities and their surrounding regions and has committed $20 million, under our Faster Rail Initiative, to support the development for up to three formal business cases for faster rail connections. Can the minister outline the purpose of the Turnbull government's $10 billion rail fund and how it can help make a Chatswood to Frenchs Forest metro a reality on the northern beaches? How will this money be allocated and what will this money be used for?

ANSWER FROM FLETCHER

Mr FLETCHER (Bradfield—Minister for Urban Infrastructure) (17:26): As the member for Grayndler knows full well from his time as the minister with responsibility for NBN, it is well-established practice for the Commonwealth to make equity investments into substantial infrastructure projects. And I do not recall the member for Grayndler describing that funding method as being corrupt—or as any of the other extravagant flourishes of language he has used now. What we have seen from the member for Grayndler, in his claims about total levels of infrastructure funding in this budget, is that he has looked at one part, a very substantial part, a very large part, of the funding that is being provided—namely, grants to states—but he has completely ignored another equally large part of the infrastructure funding in this budget, and that is the multibillion dollar commitments of equity going into inland Rail, Western Sydney Airport and, of course, Moorebank. And, indeed, we also have loan financing going from the Commonwealth government to Sydney Motorway Corporation to underpin WestConnex.

This reflects a clear policy approach from the Turnbull government. We are providing funding and financing in a range of ways, and the total amount that we are putting into infrastructure is greater than ever before. In fact, over the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, average spending was a little over $6 billion. Between 2013-14 and 2020-21, the figure, as we have informed the community, will be around $8 billion. We are seeing very significant financial commitments to infrastructure by the Turnbull government. It really does not advance the cause when somebody as experienced in infrastructure policy as the shadow minister wilfully turns his eyes away from one significant part of the form in which that funding and financing is provided.

Let me now respond to the contributions made by the members for Mackellar? and Fisher, who expressed significant interest in the National Rail Program—and for very good reason. This is a commitment by the Turnbull government to commit $10 billion to funding rail programs and rail assets around the country. We know that major rail lines are city shaping. They are transformational. They have an enormous impact on the functioning of our cities and on the functioning of the regional areas around our cities, which, of course, form part of an integrated economy with our major cities. We have people living in Geelong or in Ballarat commuting into Melbourne. We have people living in the Blue Mountains or on the Central Coast commuting to Sydney. We have people on the Sunshine Coast or the Gold Coast commuting to Brisbane. Our $10 billion National Rail Program is available to fund transformational rail investment within our major cities and also to deliver improved connections between our major cities and surrounding regional areas.

I want to commend both the member for Fisher and the member for ?Mackellar for their strong interest in these programs, their strong advocacy and the encouragement which they are already expressing for their respective state governments to come forward with proposals under this program. We want to encourage proposals coming forward so that we can allocate this funding in the most effective way possible to encourage the provision of transformational rail infrastructure in our major cities and between our major cities and surrounding regional areas. I commend those members for their advocacy in relation to their areas. It is exactly the kind of competitive energy that we want to encourage through this program. We want to see the best ideas coming forward. We have included a $20 million commitment to co-fund up to three business cases in relation to faster rail links between our cities and surrounding regional areas, part of an overall integrated approach to infrastructure in this budget, which involves record financial commitments for nation-building infrastructure all around the country, in the cities and in the regions, providing support from the federal government for the delivery of vitally needed infrastructure.