TRANSCRIPT: PRESS CONFERENCE Canberra, 1 April 2019
With:
The Hon Alan Tudge MP, Minister for Cities, Urban infrastructure and Population
E&OE
Subjects: Infrastructure Budget; congestion-busting projects; Labor’s climate policy; election campaign; electric cars; Federal Budget.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
It’s great to be here with Alan Tudge, my colleague in the Infrastructure portfolio and one of my many great colleagues with whom I’ve worked so hard along with the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, along with the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to talk about infrastructure; more importantly, not just talk, but to get things done in the infrastructure space.
Tomorrow’s Budget is going to be an infrastructure Budget. We are in the age of infrastructure, the age where we acknowledge that infrastructure is going to be so important to decongest our urban communities – certainly Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane – to make sure that we bust through that congestion which is so prevalent in those capital cities. And we're also very focused on infrastructure for regional Australia. That's why as the Nationals Leader, I’m particularly delighted that there is an extra $1 billion – one thousand million dollars - for the Roads of Strategic Importance. I know how critical that is to making sure that we get the right delivery for those feeder roads - not necessarily the national highways and byways, they're also being looked after in tomorrow night’s Budget - but certainly those feeder roads which are so, so integral in making sure that we get the right connectivity, that we get the right supply chain efficiency and we can boost productivity so we can get goods to port quicker and therefore to our markets.
Obviously we're very much focused on more free trade agreements – we signed that arrangement with Indonesia just recently – to build on the free trade arrangements we’ve made with South Korea, with China and Japan, as a Liberals-Nationals Government. That’s what we do - we get things done. And with a stronger economy, and that's what we have, we can put even more money into infrastructure, more money into making sure that we grow the economy because that's what we are all about.
So we’re busting through that urban congestion, making sure that we get the right connectivity in our regions and making sure that we address the population issues that we have in this nation. It’s all about the age of infrastructure and that's what we're in. With those remarks, I'll hand over to Alan and I’m happy to take questions afterwards.
ALAN TUDGE:
Well thanks, DPM. Today we're announcing six urban congestion-busting projects, and this is on top of the $75 billion which we've already announced in terms of our infrastructure pipeline. And I'd just like to take you briefly through all six of those projects.
We start in Queensland; we have $500 million of additional money going towards the M1 upgrade. That is a motorway which is used by up to 155,000 cars every single day and is one of the most congested motorways in the country. This is an extra $500 million which we are putting towards this. And the particular work which will be undertaken with that money is from Daisy Hill through to the Logan Motorway.
The next piece of infrastructure which we’re announcing today is for New South Wales. We're putting $200 million towards the third Hawkesbury River crossing. Again this is a bridge river crossing which has been cried out for by the local communities for years and years and years. Up to 3000 cars per hour use that bridge in peak hour traffic and it's at capacity presently. So this piece of infrastructure will provide additional capacity there and make life so much easier for thousands of residents in that area who use that piece of piece of road every single day.
In South Australia, we're adding $1.5 billion to the North-South Corridor. This is the major piece of infrastructure running all the way from the north to the south of Adelaide. In last year’s Budget, we contributed $1.2 billion. This Budget, we're putting in a further $1.5 billion, bringing us to a total of $2.7 billion for the final stage of the North-South Corridor. The previous stages are already funded, well underway and will be completed soon. This will enable the final 10.5 kilometres to be done in Adelaide, working closely with the Marshall Government. The planning work is already underway; construction will begin in 2022.
That brings us to Melbourne and Geelong, where we have three major projects which we're announcing today. The first in Geelong is the South Geelong to Waurn Ponds railway line. Now, this is a project which Sarah Henderson's been campaigning for since 2015. And in subsequent Budgets we've been adding amounts of money to it. At this Budget, we're adding a further $700 million to fully complete Stages Two and Three of the Waurn Ponds to South Geelong line. That means a full duplication of that line. Presently, it is just a single line, it is at capacity and it needs to be duplicated to add capacity. It’s a very fast growing area, it's a priority of the State Government, and so this will get the job done. And of course for Geelong, this is on top of the $2 billion which we announced just recently for the fast rail for Geelong to Melbourne to enable the 32-minute train journey into the CBD of Melbourne.
The second project is a massive suburban congestion-busting project for south east Melbourne and for the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Some of those suburbs in the south east of Melbourne and in the northern suburbs of Melbourne are the fastest growing suburbs in Australia. And this is $1.1 billion to go into particular roads in Pakenham and Cranbourne, in Narre Warren, in places like Epping. And we’ll be contributing 50 per cent of the funding for those, and the State Government has already announced that it will be contributing 50 per cent. So this is another good partnership with the State Government there as well.
The final one is a $300 million package to seal 500 kilometres of unsealed roads in the Dandenong Ranges, which for those Victorians – in fact, a lot of Australians know the Dandenong Ranges - right at the foothills, just at the edge of the suburbs - will enable 500 kilometres of unsealed roads to be sealed. We'll be working closely with the local council to complete this project over a nine-year period. At the present rate the councils wouldn't be able to complete those 500 kilometres of roads for 80 years. We'll now be doing this in nine years and this will add safety, it adds convenience, and really it’s going to enhance the tourism experience as well for the 600,000 tourists who go up into the Dandenong Ranges each and every year. It really is one of the iconic areas of Victoria and of Australia.
So together, those six projects will really make a very significant difference to hundreds of thousands of people's lives. It'll bust congestion, it makes it easier for people to get to work and back home at night, safer and more quickly, and it's just another package of congestion-busting infrastructure which the Liberal and National Parties’ Government are able to announce. We were able to do so, as the DPM said, because we've got a strong economy. When you've got a strong economy, when your budget’s back into the surplus, it means you've got money to invest in this congestion-busting infrastructure.
QUESTION:
One for Mr Tudge. Over what period of time are we expecting the money to flow into these projects?
ALAN TUDGE:
All of that will be revealed in the Budget tomorrow night, so I presume you’ll be in the lock-up tomorrow and the details will be there.
QUESTION:
Now one for Victoria: Infrastructure Australia has not included the Waurn Ponds Rail duplication on its priority list, saying the cost of the project outweighs the benefits. Then why are we funding it?
ALAN TUDGE:
This is a priority of the State Government’s and we've been putting money towards this over the last few years. The State Government at the election just last August said that this was a priority for them and they called for us to make a contribution to it. And so consequently we are making that contribution. That rail line is at capacity, and yet that area of Geelong, that area of Victoria, is growing exceptionally fast. Geelong last year grew by 2.7 per cent; that’s the same rate as Melbourne which is the fastest growing big city in Australia. So we need to build further capacity; this adds an additional railway line which means that you can put more trains on the rail.
QUESTION:
How big a role did Sarah Henderson play in getting the funding for [indistinct]?
ALAN TUDGE:
She has been advocating for this since 2015. I don't think there's been a single bigger advocate for this project than Sarah Henderson, but it's because we're in a strong financial position that we're able to put $700 million more to complete the final stages of this. If we didn’t have a strong budget, we wouldn't be able to make such big contributions to infrastructure. That's been the work of the entire team. Prime Minister Morrison, the Deputy Prime Minister here, as well as the entire Coalition team has enabled that hard work over many years to be done.
QUESTION:
Why shouldn’t this announcement, though, on the eve on an election be seen as a desperate attempt to secure Corangamite?
ALAN TUDGE:
Sarah has been campaigning on this since 2015. I think it was the 2016 Budget that we put in $50 million. In last year’s Budget we’ve put in a further $100 million towards this. And this year’s budget we're putting in $700 million. So it's been a progression. And it was only at the last state election that the State Government finally fully committed to doing the entire project. That was last August, and this is the first Budget since their formal commitment where they called on us to back them in, and that's what we are doing: working with them, backing in their call for us to fund that project so it can be completed as soon as possible. It's already at capacity now. It needs to be done, and we want to get on with it as quickly as possible.
QUESTION:
Deputy Prime Minister, can I have your reaction to Labor’s climate change announcement today? They say agriculture will be excluded from the (indistinct)?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Agriculture won't be excluded from any mechanism because if they want to achieve the emissions reduction that they're talking about, that they’re spruiking, agriculture will have to be part of the mix. And as we know it, and as Labor calls it, the fact is, agriculture is going to have to play its share too in Labor's vision of the world of the future. Agriculture can’t be exempt, it won't be exempt and agriculture as we know it today will change, will have to change under Labor's policies.
The fact is, Labor wants to tell agriculture, wants to tell farmers where they can farm, what they can farm, how they can farm and why they can farm. Agriculture as we know it will almost be shut down under Labor's policies. And the fact is, the diesel fuel rebate will have to go under Labor's policies. The fact is, you won't be able to grow cotton or rice under Labor's policies. The fact is, you won't be able to irrigate under Labor policies. This is the way Labor wants it. We know that they want to shut down the live trade of cattle and sheep and any other animals that has provided such economic benefits for our farmers, particularly in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. I was at the Cattleman’s Association conference in Darwin just last Friday and they are very, very worried that a future Shorten Government would shut down their trade which is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to their economy, to their bottom lines.
Labor doesn't care about agriculture. It never has cared about farmers. It hasn’t in the past, it doesn't now, and certainly with this decree today, they will shut down agriculture in the future. This is not the future that we want. We want to continue to be able to grow the world's best food and fibre. At the end of the day, our land-care managers who are our farmers are the world's best environmentalists. They also have to be the most resilient in these times of drought and in these times in North Queensland of severe flooding. So they have to be at their best to be able to endure the climate and the weather patterns of Australia. They're also going to have to be at their very, very best if they're going to stop what Labor wants to bring in.
You only have to look at the Queensland's native vegetation laws; their land clearing laws will become nationalised under a future Shorten Government. We don't want that. We want to make sure our farmers can continue to grow the world's best food and fibre. The Liberals and Nationals will always back our farmers. We've already put more than $7 billion on the table for drought relief measures. We have come to their assistance very quickly. I have to pay tribute to Scott Morrison and the rapid response that he's made to the North Queensland flooding situation, welcomed by the Member for Kennedy, making sure that we reacted quickly. We acted responsibly. All that will go under a future Labor Government. That's why we don't want one, and our farmers certainly don't need it.
QUESTION:
We are only days away, potentially, from an election campaign. Is this going to be a test of your leadership?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
My leadership is very safe.
QUESTION:
I’m not doubting that, I’m just saying your performance in the campaign …
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well no-one else is either.
QUESTION:
Your performance in the campaign, is that going to a determinant of your leadership going forward after the election?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
We’ll let's worry about after the election after the election. The fact is we've just announced today another billion dollars towards the Roads of Strategic Importance. This is an infrastructure Budget. It certainly is a regional Budget. We've provided great outcomes for regional Australia and we've done that with me as the National Party Leader. I have advocated for regional Australia very strongly and delivered. And certainly Josh Frydenberg has listened. He understands that when our regions are strong, so too is our nation. So does Alan Tudge, and they’re both Melbourne urban Ministers. They understand how important it is for our regions to be strong. We need strong regional leadership, I’m providing that.
QUESTION:
Deputy Prime Minister, what do make of this idea of having 50 per cent electric cars by 2030?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well how are you going to achieve it? How are you going to achieve the $13 billion in fuel excise that currently fuelled cars provide? Look it's all well good for Labor to be pure in spirit when it comes to all sorts of things, preference deals, carbon emissions and all these sort of things.
We need to provide a strong economy. We need to provide a transition to a cleaner greener economy, yes, I understand that, but we can't do it at the expense of our traditional industries. We can't do it at the expense of people who just want to put food on the table, who just want to pay their bills. So by going down this path and telling people that they can't do things the way they've always done is sheer madness and Bill Shorten stands for sheer madness. He’s shown that today with his emissions reduction plan. The Greens have long shown it. They are an extreme Party which does not represent the values and the traditions of Australians generally, and I will always stand up and oppose those sorts of ideologies that are just going to make it so much harder and so much tougher for Australians. Already we know that Labor plans to put $200 billion of additional taxes on the table if Bill Shorten becomes the Prime Minister. We do not need that. We cannot afford it. Labor will only tax people higher and make people poorer - that's the Labor way. I don't stand for that. I know Alan Tudge doesn't stand for that nor do any of our Liberal and Nationals Members of Parliament stand for that.
QUESTION:
But you do support the idea of having more electric cars on the road? How many more would you like to see?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well of course I do. But we need to do it sensibly. We need to do it in moderation and we need to do it with the full support of all stakeholders. But we just can't decide carte blanche that we're going to put a number on it and say well, we're going to do it 50 per cent by 2030, we’re going to do 100 per cent by 2050. We need to do it in transition. Our economy is in transition but we need to make sure that all of those traditional industries still have the chance to survive; and we need to make sure that we can pay for the things that we talk about here in Canberra. It’s all well and good to talk about these things in Canberra but it has to be practical, it has to be pragmatic, and that's why I'm delighted I'm part of the Liberal Nationals team that always understands that to make sure that we do things, we have to be able to pay for them.
We can't determine these sorts of policies if we can't afford them, and that's why under Scott Morrison as Prime Minister and under Josh Frydenberg as Treasurer, and under my Leadership of the Nationals and Bridget McKenzie’s Deputy Leadership, we're making sure that what we put into place we can actually pay for. That's important. And when we want to bust through congestion in our capital cities, we've got to be able to pay for it and we are doing that with a stronger economy. We have just heard from Alan Tudge now really important measures to bust through that congestion. I mean that's his whole modus operandi. Every waking moment of every waking day Alan Tudge talking about, thinking about and delivering more measures to ensure that we bust through that urban congestion. Every waking moment of every waking day I'm talking about the things that we need to talk about to make sure that we improve regional Australia. And together the Liberal and Nationals are providing a great team and we're doing just that.
QUESTION:
What do you make of the NRMA coming out and saying they want to ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2025?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Some members have been confusing the NRMA and the NRA recently, but the NRMA is a fine motorist organisation. I've been a member of it since I was 18. We take on board all of these sorts of things, whether they are put up by the NRMA or other organisations. That's why we consult. That's why we talk to these sorts of organisations that do have a part to play in the national discourse, but we're not going to bring into play anything that is going to make it harder or more difficult or more unaffordable for ordinary everyday Australian households and businesses. That's what is critically important. We need to be able to make sure that anything that we put into place in the future, we can actually afford and that it is sustainable and practical, and that's what we stand for.
QUESTION:
You’ve spoken about infrastructure. What else is going to be in the Budget to help National MPs save their seats [indistinct]?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
It’s not about National Party MPs saving their seats. National Party MPs work very hard, along with regional Liberals, to make sure that regional Australia gets well looked after. That's always been the case. But I'm sure because you're so interested in the Budget you'll be in the lockup tomorrow when Josh Frydenberg outlines the blueprint for the future. The age of infrastructure is upon us. We welcome that.
You've just heard some fantastic announcements by Alan Tudge. You've certainly heard from me about the benefits for regional Australia, and I'm sure when you're in that lockup tomorrow you, like all the other journalists who are in there, are going to be amazed at the fantastic outline, the fantastic plan, the fantastic blueprint that Josh Frydenberg and Matthias Cormann have for the future of Australia.
QUESTION:
Well just on another matter, Deputy Prime Minister, has the Government received a formal request from Karen Nettleton for assistance to bring her grandchildren to Australia?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
You'd have to ask the Immigration or Home Affairs Minister that question.
QUESTION:
What assistance, if any, will the Australian Government provide the children in refugee camps from Australian Islamic State families, and will these children be allowed to come to Australia?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well again, you’d have to put that question to those Ministers I referred to before. Thank you very much.