Infrastructure NSW Bill 2011
17-June-2011
Mr CRAIG BAUMANN (Port Stephens—Parliamentary Secretary) [11.21 a.m.]: I will make a brief contribution to the debate on the Infrastructure NSW Bill 2011, which is probably one of the most important bills to be introduced into this Parliament. For 16 long years, the people of New South Wales were ignored by the disgraceful Labor Government and on 26 March the strength of their rejection of the mob that now occupies the Opposition benches is evidence enough in this House and the other place.
When I was elected to this place four years ago, New South Wales was in drought. I can remember Morris Iemma announcing that the unused rail tunnels under Hyde Park would be utilised to store harvested stormwater. I thought at the time that that was not a bad idea. Coalition policy in the lead-up to the 2007 election was the collecting, purifying and storing of stormwater. Of course, Morris went one step further and spent $1.9 billion on a desalination plant at Kurnell. That is probably the most expensive and energy-hungry way of producing fresh water known to man.
The object of this bill is to establish Infrastructure NSW as a government agency for the purposes of securing the efficient, effective, economic and timely planning, coordinating, selecting, funding, implementing, delivering and whole-of-lifecycle asset management of infrastructure that is required for the economic and social wellbeing of the community, and ensuring that decisions about infrastructure projects are informed by expert professional analysis and advice. I spent just under 17 years in local government. That is the level of government that members opposite have spent the past 16 years kicking to death.
The former Government whinged and whined about how bad councils were. It shifted costs to councils, removed their planning powers, strangled them financially, treated them with contempt, and did all it could to make them look ridiculous in the eyes of their ratepayers. Despite that, all councils have forward works programs. All councils work through a priority list of new construction and maintenance projects. Those programs are developed by professional staff and endorsed by elected councillors, and provide long-term forecasts. That is what this legislation really is all about. After 16 years of knee-jerk announcements, glossy brochures and very expensive studies without outcomes this Government has introduced legislation to provide for the orderly planning of infrastructure.
I mentioned Morris Iemma's great idea about storing water in the unused rail tunnels under Hyde Park. I remember a few weeks later Morris announced the North West Metro, a project designed to show the dynamism and energy of his Government. He spent millions of dollars on glossy brochures describing a fast train from Windsor to Sydney, so fast that it did not have time to stop for passengers. That was a good thing because the Sydney terminus was—wait for it—the same tunnels that he planned to flood. For 16 years the Labor Government created virtual infrastructure—virtual rail lines, dams, a CBD Metro. It also wasted $500 million on a plan to prop up Verity Firth's seat of Balmain, arguably one the best-served electorates in the State for public transport. The former Government became an expert in virtual infrastructure—why actually build something, when it can be announced over and over again?
The people of the Hunter were not fooled and the Coalition won three seats in what previously had always been Labor heartland. We also won Maitland, in no small part because the Labor member, Frank Terenzini, was obviously out of his depth and talked about quitting until he was bought off with a place on the frontbench. For members opposite, money overcomes principles every time. I do not include the member for Wallsend in that comment because she has always had the guts to do what she thinks is right. My 68-vote margin in the 2007 election is now about 10,000. Why did the Coalition do so well in the Hunter, the Central Coast and indeed in the rest of New South Wales? It was because the previous Carr, Iemma, Rees and Keneally governments demonstrated that they clearly were not there to govern but to use and abuse the people of New South Wales, and to fritter away the wealth that this once great State had.
In my electorate of Port Stephens, despite being Labor from its gazettal in 1988, the Labor Government quite happily promised infrastructure around election time but failed to deliver. Prior to the 2007 election, the then Minister for Police, John Watkins, promised to establish a Port Stephens Local Area Command. He did not mention it in passing; he promised it seven times in one interview. After the election, when David Campbell was appointed as the Minister for Police—probably one of the most incongruous appointments ever made—he said he did not promise to establish a local area command and we would not get one. Labor campaign strategy 101: Promise the world and then shuffle the ministry. The people of Port Stephens were not unduly surprised. A new police station for Raymond Terrace was promised before the 1999 election, again in 2003 and once more in 2007. Members opposite dithered and mucked around. The station should be opened next month.
Our dedicated and hardworking local police officers have been working out of an archaic and unsuitable station for 12 years longer than they should have been. The Iemma Government promised a new ambulance station for Nelson Bay in 2007, which took four years to build. It also promised a HealthOne Clinic in Raymond Terrace in 2007. The development application was lodged with Port Stephens Council in the past few weeks. These facilities are not luxuries. They are not art galleries or bronze statues. They are accommodation for our hardworking police, our hardworking ambulance officers and our hardworking medical professionals.
Nelson Bay Road is one of the busiest roads in my electorate with more than 20,000 vehicle movements a day. It is the only link between the Tomaree Peninsula and the rest of the world. For 10 years the Labor Government promised to provide dual carriageway between Bobs Farm and Anna Bay. That failure can be measured in blood. This is a goat track that kills people, but what did the previous Government do? It did nothing. The Coalition is committed to building this dual carriageway in this term of government. The Labor Government also did its virtual infrastructure trick on the F3 to Raymond Terrace link.
The former Government spent $7.7 million on glossy brochures, again with nothing to show for it. This critical road link will help to clear one of the State's most critical bottlenecks—a bottleneck where the New England Highway and the Pacific Highway share the same four lane road, a bottleneck that closes two of the State's busiest highways when anything out of the ordinary occurs, such as a breakdown or accident. When Premier O'Farrell was in the electorate in early January, I explained the importance of this link and I will make a submission to Infrastructure NSW and Hunter Infrastructure to seek funding to begin planning and construction.
The F3 to Raymond Terrace link passes over some pretty unstable ground. Once the route design has been reviewed and property acquired, the ground will have to be pre-loaded. This involves placing about six metres of sand on top of the unstable ground to achieve compaction for the sub-base and it is time dependent; that is, it may be there for three or four years prior to any other construction taking place. That is why the Coalition is different from the mob on the other side of the Chamber. My submission to Infrastructure NSW will be to proof and survey the route, acquire land as appropriate and then pre-load as required so that when the serious money is available the ground work will have been done.
We should be planning our State infrastructure and encouraging councils to plan future infrastructure. By the end of this term, for example, I would like to know where the two-lane parts of Nelson Bay Road will run in the future. The Labor Government had 16 years to plan something that the United States Government built during the Second World War to service its base at Fly Point. We must plan for the future, and that is what this bill is all about. I encourage members to support it.