Questions without notice and ministers statements
Infrastructure projects
John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Premier. With today’s announcement from the Commonwealth removing funding for 12 infrastructure projects in Victoria, the government’s major projects plan is in disarray. What is the Premier’s plan to fix this mess?
Danny Pearson: Why don’t you get in your car? Why don’t you use your driver to get around Melbourne? Honestly.
The SPEAKER: The Minister for Transport Infrastructure will come to order.
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:02): I am delighted to answer this question from the Leader of the Opposition and thank his tactics committee for furnishing him with such a question. The announcement today by the federal infrastructure minister comes against the backdrop – and let us go to the reasons why back in May the federal minister indicated that she was undertaking this review – it was because the federal infrastructure pipeline was stuffed full of failed federal Liberal government projects that they put into the program in the lead-up to various elections. Let me share with the Leader of the Opposition, in case he forgot, about all those car parks that were just impossible to deliver – car parks in places like Camberwell, Canterbury, Glenferrie, a few places that the Leader of the Opposition might be familiar with. Leader of the Opposition, I use this as an example because the federal infrastructure minister has been undertaking a significant overhaul of the federal infrastructure pipeline with states around the country.
John Pesutto: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, I ask that you bring the Premier back to the question, and I note that those car parks were never part of the review. They were cancelled.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Members will be removed from the chamber without warning. The Premier was being relevant to the question that was asked. There is no point of order.
Jacinta ALLAN: I thank the Leader of the Opposition for making my points for me. I really do thank the Leader of the Opposition for his assistance. Yes, those projects were cancelled because they were undeliverable, and there was further work that needed to be done by the federal government to address some of the challenges in the federal infrastructure pipeline. So in terms of his assertion about what is in disarray, I would suggest that the Leader of the Opposition’s strategy today is in complete disarray.
And in answer to his question about what we are going to do, I was answering his question.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will come to order.
James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, this question related to 12 infrastructure projects that have been canned, and I would ask you to bring the Premier back to that question.
The SPEAKER: The Premier was being relevant to the question that was asked.
Jacinta ALLAN: What we are doing here in Victoria is getting on and delivering the projects that we know have the support of the Victorian community – projects that can be delivered. Just this morning the minister for public transport and I were at Anzac station, one of the five underground stations being delivered as part of the Metro Tunnel, a project that is fully funded by Victorians – not a dollar from the Leader of the Opposition’s mates in Canberra. And do you know what, we are getting on and delivering that project. Those opposite tried to take us to the Supreme Court to block this project – we are getting on and delivering it.
John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): The federal government said that the lack of detailed business cases was the reason for the withdrawal of funding for Victorian projects. Why can’t the Victorian Labor government manage money and manage major projects?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:07): Well, I will go and check the record for what the Leader of the Opposition has said, because the Leader of the Opposition is referring to the 12 projects that have been addressed by the federal minister today. Going to one in particular, one that he might be familiar with, the Camberwell Road–Monteith Avenue–Redfern Road intersection upgrade – that project was at the front door of the former member for Kooyong’s office. That is how that project made the list. We know that the failed former federal Liberal–National government put a whole bunch of projects on the federal infrastructure agenda not because they could be delivered but because they were after them to deliver votes for them in the lead-up to the election. We are delivering projects like the Metro Tunnel, like the West Gate Tunnel, like the North East Link Project, like removing level crossings – a whole bunch of projects that have been opposed by those opposite.