Keynote address to the 2024 CEDA Infrastructure conference

[Check against delivery]

I begin by acknowledging the Gadigal of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of this area.

I pay my respect to their Elders past and present.

I extend that respect to any First Nations people here today.

Infrastructure – an industry literally built across our vast land – has a unique responsibility to respect and consider the experiences, cultures and histories of the First Nation’s communities who have cared for these lands since time immemorial.

As we consider the theme of this conference – ‘Building on the past, shaping the future’ – that is something we should keep in mind.

Introduction

Thank you as well to thank the entire CEDA team for having me here today. 

I have been taking part in these events for quite a few years now, and I always appreciate the opportunity you provide to address such an engaged and knowledgeable audience.

Today, the Commonwealth is investing more money in infrastructure across Australia than at any point in our history – with the 10-year pipeline now sitting at a bit over $120 billion.

We are jointly funding more than 440 major projects across the nation, including 99 here in NSW.

With that investment, we are delivering nation shaping projects which support a range of economic and social objectives, including regional connectivity, liveability and safety – including our current commitment to major projects across this state like the $10.4 billion Sydney Metro to Western Sydney Airport and the $2.1 billion M1 Pacific Motorway Extension to Raymond Terrace. 

Just this week, BITRE released its most recent quarterly infrastructure construction figures, closing out the 2023 calendar year.

These figures show that public sector expenditure on road construction was $18.8 billion for the 12 months to December 2023, and public expenditure on rail was $13.4 billion. This was an 18% increase and a 17.6% increase on the previous calendar years respectively.

And for both of those figures, that was the highest level of spending on record.

When you look at it on a state basis, NSW saw the highest level of road spending growth.

Our investment here in this state includes our $1.63 billion investment in the new M12 Motorway between the M7 and The Northern Road at Luddenham, and our $2.2 billion investment in the new 14 kilometre Coffs Harbour Bypass on the Pacific Highway.

Just as it says in the theme of today’s event – and just like we did when we were last in Government with Anthony Albanese as Minister for Infrastructure – we are building on the past and we are shaping the future.

We are able to make these investments because our government has undertaken the hard work to reform how the Commonwealth invests in infrastructure across the country.

Infrastructure reforms

When I spoke to you in March of last year, our government was in the midst of major reform. 

We were then busy implementing meaningful changes to strengthen Infrastructure Australia’s ability to provide the Government with quality independent advice. 

Those reforms passed Parliament in early December, defining IA’s mandate, improving the evaluation of infrastructure proposals, and refining the products IA delivers to better support government investment objectives – including ensuring a more targeted Infrastructure Priority List.

These changes were designed to restore Infrastructure Australia’s crucial role as the Government’s independent infrastructure adviser. 

Right now – as we go through our 2024 Budget process – Infrastructure Australia is again playing an important role.

Then, soon after that conference, I released Dr Kerry Schott’s report into the governance and delivery of Inland Rail.

This report was a damning indictment about a major infrastructure project – even though that hasn’t stopped one of the men most responsible for those mistakes spruiking his work in national broadsheets over recent weeks.

As we would say in my home state – more front than Myers!

While the report found that the project remained important, it found that, even though the Liberals and Nationals had delivered just 16% of the project, they had managed to blow out the costs to around $31 billion.

That is double the price that the Coalition said it would cost as recently as 2020.

Dr Schott concluded that, “Somewhat surprisingly the project has commenced delivery without knowing where it will start or finish”, adding that the final date and cost remained uncertain, because of a lack of confidence in the latest cost estimates.

The mismanagement of this project was flagrant, which is why our government accepted all 19 recommendations of the report and began the hard work of getting the project back on track.

This is important work that we are continuing to undertake, including prioritising completing the route from Melbourne to Parkes and north of that, working hard to gain required environmental approvals and secure land needed for the project corridor. 

Next on our reform agenda was the Independent Strategic Review of the Infrastructure Investment Program, a landmark step in ensuring that the Commonwealth’s land transport infrastructure pipeline is sustainable and fit for purpose.

The independent review found that the pipeline of land transport infrastructure projects we inherited from our predecessors was congested and unaffordable.

Further, the mix of large and small-scale projects clogging the pipeline had led to unprecedented and unsustainable pressures on construction materials and skilled labour.

Informed by the recommendations of the Review, and following consultation with state and territory governments, in November we made some difficult but necessary changes to the infrastructure pipeline inherited. 

This includes reshaping how the Commonwealth funds projects, returning to a preference of 50:50 funding with the states and territories for future investments, so both levels of government carry an equal share of both the benefits and the risks, particularly when it comes to properly scoping projects to minimise unexpected cost escalations.

As I said, these were hard decisions, but ones which were absolutely necessary to put the pipeline on a sustainable footing and take pressure off inflation.

It was these hard decisions that allowed us to contribute the extra $6.8 billion to help cover cost pressures on major projects across the country that I spoke of earlier.

It was these hard decisions that mean the Commonwealth can continue to invest in in the right infrastructure projects that support Australia’s growing cities and regions, underpinned by strong supporting evidence and demonstrated value for money.

It was also these hard decisions that meant on November last year, I could announce Roads to Recovery funding will increase progressively from $500 million to $1 billion per year – giving every single council across Australia more money to spend upgrading local roads – and Black Spot funding will also gradually increase from $110 million to $150 million per year, making our road network safer and more reliable. 

At the same time I also announced we would further improve safety – particularly for our freight vehicles – by merging the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Bridges Renewal Program into a new Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program – with the funding allocated to those programs to increase to $200 million available per year, up from the current $150 million.

Importantly – the reform work we undertook over the last year means that I will be able to have more to say in coming weeks about new projects we will commit to as part of this year’s Budget. 

To ensure these new projects we announce don’t repeat the mistakes of the previous government, in November last year I also released the Australian Government’s Infrastructure Policy Statement to guide the way we invest in transport infrastructure, aiming to unlock a range of significant economic, social and environmental objectives.

The Policy Statement commits the Government to focusing on delivering nationally significant infrastructure projects. Nationally significant means those projects which have a clear role for the Commonwealth and which deliver on the three priorities for our investments:

• Productivity and Resilience
• Liveability, and 
• Sustainability

It means more efficient roads, ensuring supply chains are resilient, building equity into the heart of where we live, improving prosperity, reducing our emissions and encouraging more sustainable ways to travel.

I cannot give away too much yet about what we will be announcing in the budget, but I can assure you that our investments will be guided by those principles.

Summary

As I said at the start, our government is investing more money in infrastructure than any other in our history, and we are doing it in a way that is more responsible, more transparent and more effective than our predecessors.

Under the last Labor government before this one, my predecessor in this job, the now Prime Minister of our country, worked hard to invest sustainably in the projects that mattered most to Australians.

Proudly, we invested in transformative projects like the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal, we started planning for Western Sydney Airport, completed the duplication of the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne and re-built a third of the interstate rail network.   

We did this listening to the best advice of the experts at Infrastructure Australia, and we did it based on the needs of the nation.

Since coming to government, we have undertaken the difficult task of returning us to those days and putting Australia’s infrastructure spend on a sustainable footing.

We have built on the work of those reforming Labor governments and ministers who came before us – who invested on sound expert advice and not on political greed.

We have reformed how the Commonwealth engages with our partners in the states, territories and local government.

And we are investing in projects that will shape our nation’s future through making it more sustainable, more resilient, and more prosperous for communities across the country.

Because of that hard work and those tough decisions, I can confirm that the Commonwealth’s infrastructure investment pipeline – which is the largest on record – is once more sustainable, deliverable and believable.

Thank you for having me here today, and I look forward to the time we have available for discussion.