ALGA General Assembly - Foundations for the Future: building resources and strengthening communities
18th June, 2013
Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis, President of ALGA, Aldermen, councillors, ladies and gentlemen.Thank you once again for your warm welcome and for giving me the opportunity to address your Assembly today on transport and infrastructure and its ability to build communities and create opportunity.
Transport infrastructure provides not only the foundations for our economy to grow by providing an efficient means for our products to get to markets both near and far, but it also builds our communities by providing access to health, education and any other social services you can imagine.
Research has shown that increased spending on important infrastructure projects have a higher return on investment than achieved from spending in most other sectors. But while greater investment helps grow our economy, boost tourism and strengthen communities, failing to invest will cost us dearly. Urban congestion alone is projected to cost our economy over $20 billion by 2020.
All Australians feel the result of inadequate transport infrastructure. The statistics tell us that it comes at an economic cost, but it also takes a social toll adding to stress, anxiety and making daily life generally more difficult.
Roads to Recovery
One of the most important programs for local government within my portfolio is without doubt the Roads to Recovery program.
While not the biggest program in size, it plays a crucial role in funding local roads.
Roads to Recovery is now a decade old and its real worth is greatly appreciated. Along with the roads component of your financial assistance grants, the Commonwealth has become for many Councils the most important funder of local roads.
As you would be well aware, local government is responsible for over 80% of our road network, yet has very limited capacity to raise capital or harness private sector investment for its priority projects.
Roads to Recovery is the means by which the Federal Government lends a helping hand by directly assisting local governments build and maintain the over 650,000 kilometres of local roads that we have across the country.
The funding is divided up using an established formula to give local government the autonomy and flexibility to spend the money on the projects it thinks are the most important.
From the Coalition's perspective, we appreciate the vital role that local government plays in maintaining the integrity of our entire road network.
The Coalition knows all too well that most journeys start and end on a local road.
As for the future of Roads to Recovery, the Coalition invented it and I can confirm to you again today that we'll continue it into the future.
I know that as part of ALGA's 10 point plan, you would like to see more funding dedicated to this program, particularly in light of the findings of your report from a few years ago that current levels of expenditure on local roads will have to increase by around $1.2 billion per year to avoid a further deterioration of the local road network.
Can I say to you, I too would like to see more funding for our roads, and rail for that matter as well.
Unfortunately in the recent budget, Labor actually announced a $1.2 billion per year cut to road and rail funding under the next five year program, which it calls Nation Building 2.
This, combined with Labor's plan to insist on dollar for dollar matching for projects on the national highway, will inevitably mean significantly less funding for new projects on our major highways over the next few years and less money for maintaining the current network.
With gross debt levels approaching $300 billion future governments will certainly be constrained in what infrastructure projects they can fund. Debt matters!
This level of federal government debt will necessitate payments of around $15 billion per year in interest. Just think of what projects we could be doing with that kind of money.
Repayments of debt only start after the budget is balanced. To pay off this debt, the next government will need to achieve budget surpluses bigger than ever achieved by the Howard government and do so for 20 years.
Having said all of that, I know how important Roads to Recovery is to you and more importantly, to the communities you represent.
The Coalition will continue Roads to Recovery and we will get our budget back in balance so that worthwhile programs like this can be sufficiently funded into the future.
Black spots
I should also point out that the Coalition remains committed to continuing the Black Spot program.
This is a program that was re-introduced by the former Coalition Government in 1996 after it was scrapped under Labor.
I want to make sure that the Black Spot Program is squarely focused on fixing safety hazards on our local roads and streets and not as a means to divert funding to the national highway network.
Local road bridges
I would also like to say a few words about the role of local road bridges.
A large number of our 20,000 local bridges across the country are nearing the end of their life.
However, substantial upgrades are often beyond the financial capabilities of local governments, particularly when you consider that large numbers of bridges are often clustered within some local councils in our regions with rivers.
As a result, mass limits on bridges are becoming more common and sadly, in some cases, bridges have had to close.
The economic and social impact on regional communities as a result of these restrictions will only increase over time as the school bus is no longer allowed on the local bridge and our farmers and industry can't efficiently get their goods to market.
The NSW Government has done some work on the benefits of upgrading bridges on its key freight routes and has estimated that upgrading just 5 of their identified priority mass limit bridges will remove 8,000 heavy vehicle trips from local NSW roads each year, saving $200 million in economic, social and environmental costs over the next 20 years.
We could achieve even more if we had a national program to replace and restore these bridges that are holding back regional communities and disrupting the efficient movement of freight across the country.
To this end, at the last election the Coalition committed to providing $300 million to be matched by state or local governments, to restore and rebuild local road bridges.
While Labor failed to match this commitment, I remain committed to the program as we recognise the economic and social importance of this infrastructure.
Betterment and natural disasters
In talking about the state of our local roads and bridges, it is also important to recognise that much of our local infrastructure has taken a battering over the past few summers.
Floods, cyclones, bush fires and severe storms have necessitated the rebuilding of a lot of infrastructure in regional communities, cities and suburbs, often more than once.
In this context there has been a lot of talk about betterment, the need to rebuild facilities to make them better than they were.
In the wake of the recent natural disasters I have visited many communities which have had to rebuild and rebuild again the same infrastructure in compliance with current guidelines.
I know that in many instances urgent repairs are the priority to re-open damaged infrastructure and so the opportunity to rebuild to a higher standard passes. But there are cases where temporary repairs will enable a community to get by while a 'better' is designed and built.
I think we need to find better ways for our three tiers of government to work together and take a careful look at natural disaster recovery guidelines to find ways to ensure that we learn from the experiences of infrastructure being lost in the past and do not allow that to be repeated.
Constitutional recognition of local government
Finally, it would be remiss of me to come to a local government conference in the lead up to the election where the constitutional recognition of local government will be put to the people and not mention my position.
As you may know, I spent 14 years in local government before entering the Federal Parliament, so I know first-hand the significant and increasingly important role that local government plays in the delivery of services.
Local Government has time and time again demonstrated its capacity to deliver programs and public services in a cost-effective way.
Local government allows communities to find local solutions to local problems.
The Coalition has been a strong supporter of providing direct funding to local governments through the Roads to Recovery program as I mentioned earlier and the Financial Assistance Grants.
Nonetheless, the High Court's decision in Pape v the Commissioner of Taxation in 2009, the Williams case and several other cases yet to be heard, raise uncertainties about the legality of Commonwealth payments to local government.
The Nationals are committed to supporting appropriate constitutional recognition of local government to remove the uncertainty surrounding direct commonwealth funding to local governments.
I have serious concerns that this issue has been so badly handled by the government that it could fail.
* The Speigleman report says that the case has not yet been made.
* The AEC says there is not enough time.
* ALGA says it does not want it done in conjunction with the September 14 election.
But at the last minute the government gave the go ahead for the referendum.
Now questions are being raised whether the wording of the question is correct - all at a time too late to change.
It is clear most states will oppose the referendum.
Now there is the funding debacle with the government deciding to fund the Yes case to the tune of $10 million, but only provide $500,000 for the No case.
This decision deeply offends Australian's sense of fair play.
In Australia, referenda usually fail, including two previous referenda on local government.
By holding the vote on September 14, this referendum will be caught up in the future of the government.
Local government will have a huge task to win this argument amidst all the obstacles and barriers the government has put in the way. I will be voting Yes and I wish you well in the campaign.
Conclusion
Thank you again for the giving me the opportunity to address you today.
As I said at the start of my speech, having world class transport infrastructure provides a strong foundation for our economy and for our communities.
The role that local government plays in this is equation should never be underestimated.
Of all our three tiers of government, local government representatives are closest to the communities and people they represent. This gives you the great opportunity to provide tailor-made solutions to local problems and provide better outcomes for neighbourhoods and regional communities.
However, at the same time often local governments are the most constrained in their capacity to raise the resources necessary to solve these problems. It is vital that we find a way for all three levels of government to work together to provide better outcomes for Australians.
Thank you again for the opportunity to address your General Assembly.
[ENDS]
