$7.5 million funding announcement for Lanyon Drive, Queanbeyan
Joint Statement with Kevin Rudd MP, Martin Ferguson MP and Mike Kelly, candidate for Eden-Monaro
10 September 2007
RUDD: Well, it’s good to be here with Mike Kelly and both Labor’s Federal Transport spokesman and the ACT Roads Minster to talk about how we end the blame game between Canberra and the States and Territories on practical things like roads.
When we look at this area here and the future of Lanyon Drive, Jerrabomberra, there’s a practical problem here, and that is you have a road here which has 22,000 cars on it each day and it needs upgrading. It needs upgrading and it needs duplication. So, what we’re here to do today is to put our shoulder to the wheel and we’re going to commit to $7.5 million to ensure that this stretch of the road is upgraded and duplicated, should we form the next government of the country.
We believe this is a good outcome for the residents of this local area. It helps as a major transport artery to make it easier for people to get to work and to get home, it improves, therefore, the overall commuting time, and on top of all that, it’s an improvement when it comes to overall economic efficiencies. If we’ve got good roads and are working effectively that boosts the productivity to the overall economy. If roads are falling behind then we’ve got a problem on our hands.
I might turn to Martin to add to the detail of this then we’ll take your questions.
FERGUSON: The Lanyon Drive, Jerrabomberra, transport corridor is a key transport corridor linking the ACT and NSW. What we’re proposing now is to effectively guarantee that stages one and two of the project are completed, bringing forward what was originally intended for stage two. This is not only important in terms of the flow of traffic; this is a key safety issue with a very difficult problem with respect to accidents.
I must say, Mike Kelly, in association with John Hargraves, lobbied the Opposition very hard on this proposal. It’s about sitting down and (inaudible) arrangements to get on with infrastructure development in Australia. And I’m pleased to say that a Rudd Labor Government will effectively now guarantee
that the Lanyon Drive, Jerrabomberra, precinct is fixed once and for all.
RUDD: Now, over to you.
JOURNALIST: Isn’t this just a grant for a road in a marginal seat that’ll help your election chances, and don’t you guys criticise the Nats for doing this sort of thing?
RUDD: No. This is a key part of the transport infrastructure, this part of Australia. What we’ve said repeatedly is that we’re about the business of ending the blame game between Canberra and the States and Territories. We can cooperate to make sure roads like this are built, or you can play politics and say, ‘well, it’s his fault or it’s his fault’. I’m not into that business, whether it’s with hospitals, whether it’s with education, or whether it’s with roads, if a practical piece of road infrastructure needs upgrading. Martin and Mike have done the groundwork here, together with the ACT Government, and we believe it’s the right way ahead.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible).
FERGUSON: Can I say on the Kings Highway, there’s already key investments proposed and underway by the NSW Government to actually put in place overtaking lanes. There are a number of other key projects that the ACT Government has raised with me, for example, the Airport precinct, this is part of a potential package which is about a partnership between a Rudd Labor Government, the ACT and NSW Governments, fixing key highways and arterial roads in this area and it’s about time they were done. There has been a failure by the Howard Government to sit down and work out the priority budgets.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
FERGUSON: AusLink two is a huge program of infrastructure development. All around Australia we’ve already announced, for example, Mains Road and Kessels, was announced by Kevin in Brisbane last Monday. That was identified by the Queensland Government, the Brisbane City Council, and the logistics industry itself as a priority. So, we’re actually doing it the right way, consulting and making sure that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely on infrastructure projects.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, would Peter Costello have the ticker to tap John Howard on the shoulder? And what is your reaction to the latest polls that show you’re headed for victory?
RUDD: What the Liberal Party does about the future of its leadership is a matter for the Liberal Party. It’s been the government for 11 years. Who they decide to have as their leader is a matter for them. I think what’s plain now is that the Liberal Party is degenerating into internal political squabbling while we’ve been out there outlining a plan for Australia’s future.
On the question of today’s newspaper reports, can I say my view has not changed. This election will be tight because, one, there are 16 seats for us to win. Two, we have yet to experience even the beginning of a large scale, paid television advertising campaign, a negative scare campaign based on interest rates, unions, and anything else you might care to poke a stick at. And the whole objective of that campaign will be to say if you vote for anyone other than John Howard or the Liberals, then the sky will fall in.
The other thing is this. At the end of the day the election, when people go to vote, will be about my plan for Australia’s future versus Mr Howard’s or Mr Costello’s plan for Australia’s future. I’ve spent all year, together with my colleagues, putting out that plan on the Education Revolution, a national plan to fix our hospitals, how do we deal with infrastructure like roads, Infrastructure Australia, a broadband network for the country, housing affordability, affordable rental accommodation, on top of that, plans to reduce the infrastructure charging on new housing developments, and our plans to restore balance, fairness and flexibility into the workplace.
We have a plan for Australia’s future. The Liberals are degenerating into internal political squabbling.
JOURNALIST: Do you expect to face Mr Howard at the election?
RUDD: That’s a matter for the Liberals. I noticed Mr Howard said today that he would now be talking about his plans for the future. After 11 years and with an election now due to be called, it’s odd that Mr Howard says that as of today, he’s going to be talking about plans for the future. Here’s a challenge for Mr Howard. If you’re committed to plans for Australia’s future, how about a clear-cut commitment that if you’re re-elected as Prime Minister, that you will commit to serving three years as Prime Minister. In other words, be there to see plans through.
What’s my commitment? If I’m elected as Prime Minister, I’ll serve three years. The plans I put on the table, I would implement and take responsibility for over that period of time. Mr Howard’s saying, ‘well, I may, or may not, be around for three years’. I think it’s time he actually levelled with the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, on the question of your plans for the future, the Democrats have foreshadowed a new private members bill which would provide a fully paid maternity leave (inaudible) for all working mothers. Will Labor tell us about its plans for the future on that? Will you equal it? (inaudible)
RUDD: I haven’t seen the Democrats plan (inaudible). I certainly believe, when it comes to life-work balance and the challenges of women in the workforce, these are huge challenges for modern Australia. We also know what’s affordable and we, therefore, will have further to say on this between now and the election.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
RUDD: Can I say we have somewhere to go between now and the election. We have already indicated in Forward with Fairness, our position when it came to unpaid parental leave. And we also have already indicated further flexibility on that. When it comes to further plans on that, we will have more to say.
JOURNALIST: Kevin, we could be a week or so away from the campaign, have you organised anything with the Prime Minister about the televised debate or how many you’d have or what your preferences are?
RUDD: The answer to that is, Matt, not that I’m aware of. I mean, I haven’t and whether the office has been in contact with his office, I have got no idea.
JOURNALIST: He, generally, holds it in the first week to get it out of the way. What would your preference be?
RUDD: I’m happy to debate Mr Howard whenever he wants to debate me and I would have preferred to have debated him last week and the week before and the week before.
Remember, whenever Mr Howard has brought to the forefront Iraq and saying this is a critical issue for choices to be made between Labor and the Liberals, well, bring on the debate. When it has been industrial relations and Mr Howard has been saying that the sky will fall in if Labor’s plans are implemented, I say bring on the debate, let’s have it. Mr Howard seems to be not terribly available for those opportunities. So, for the future, happy to debate Mr Howard. But I think its time we just got through the phoney campaign …
JOURNALIST: Do you want a date?
RUDD: My challenge to Mr Howard is this. APEC is over. The time has come for him to announce the election date. The Australian people and business want the democratic process to decide who will be the next government of Australia. I’m prepared to submit my plans for that, I hope Mr Howard is as well. But it’s time for the election date to be announced.
JOURNALIST: Aren’t you trying to create the false impression that he would be overstaying his welcome if he didn’t name a date now, when in fact, the law allows him to wait well into January?
RUDD: Well, can I say this time three years ago, we were two weeks into an election campaign. It is three years, as of the 9th of October, when the last election was held. Can I say the season is now.
JOURNALIST: But you understand the law. The law allows him to (inaudible).
RUDD: Can I say that it’s time Mr Howard clarified the date. And if you look at the overall spread of these things over time, once you get to your three year point, which is where we are now, the Prime Minister should be making it clear. It will be for the Australian people to decide, but I think its time this phoney campaign stopped and the Australian people are given the opportunity to decide if they are going to vote for Mr Howard or myself. It’s time all that happened.
I also noticed that Mr Howard was saying this morning that he talking about future plans, as I said, he has been Prime Minister for 11 years and he is now going to talk about future plans. I have already indicated it would be useful if he indicated he is going to be around for the next three years, and if he doesn’t want to do that. On top of that, when asked this morning, ‘what are your future plans, Prime Minster?’. The Prime Minister didn’t have an answer. He said, ‘this interview is too short to give you an answer’.
Well, can I say the luxury (inaudible) extended to Martin and myself is, when asked a question in an interview what are your plans for the roads portfolio, what are your plans for the country’s future, (inaudible). I think it does show Mr Howard and the Liberals are making it up as they go along.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, do you think the police, or some of the police, were heavy handed in their (inaudible) APEC over the weekend?
RUDD: No.
JOURNALIST: Mr Kelly, do you think Mr Costello would be popular with Eden-Monaro voters, given the high concentration of retirees and the changes he announced to the superannuation in the last budget?
KELLY: Well, he is not contesting Eden-Monaro, so it’ between Gary and I and we will see what happens.
JOURANLIST: Mr Rudd, are you looking forward to taking on the Prime Minister in question time this week?
RUDD: Oh look, we have a lot of question times since I have been around, I just regard each week as its own challenges. I have never underestimated Mr Howard. I have always seen Mr Howard as a formidable opponent and for those reasons, as I’ve said in response to your first question, I think, that it will be a very tough and hard fought election.
JOURNALIST: What did you make of, you may not have seen it, but Alexander Downer’s criticism of your Mandarin speaking performance last week, I’m sure you saw it. He speaks French and he learned it in two months and you learned it in two years, what did you make of that?
RUDD: That’s Alex being Alex, that’s all I can say.
JOURNALIST: On Iraq, Minister Nelson suggested yesterday that by taking troops below a certain critical mass, you will be endangering them.
RUDD: Mr Nelson has zero credibility on Iraq; I think he is Australia’s worst Defence Minister, ever. I think that if you speak to professionals in the Defence field, speak to Defence officials privately about what they think of Mr Nelson, they will give you a full and candid view. And remember, it was Mr Nelson who went out there said, not long also, the reason we are in the Iraq war was to protect our oil interests. I think, as of that point, Mr Nelson’s credibility disappeared and I think Mr Nelson is best suited to another portfolio, I really do.
JOURNALIST: What’s changed between now and the letter you sent to the Prime Minister, after, not long the war, saying we should do everything we can, I’m paraphrasing, you know the letter you sent, that everything you can to help out the Iraqi people.
RUDD: There are a whole bunch of ways in which you can help the Iraqi’s. One is through economic assistance. The other is through humanitarian assistance and through other forms of security assistance, which is why we said in the past that we would look at training programs, as many countries do around the world.
JOURNLAIST: But isn’t that what the troops are doing, our troops are doing, there at the moment?
RUDD: Training programs in Amman in Jordan for border security personnel and the like. There are, from memory, I might have the figure wrong here, more than 20 countries who have been running training programs in Amman in Jordan. These are practical forms of security policy assistance which you could deliver, economic assistance, one of the proposals we have put forward in the past I’m strongly committed to assist the Iraqi’s with their hospital services and making sure there are descent medical services in that country. And the other is, of course, humanitarian assistance for various parts of the country.
Remember this, and Mr Howard says that the Iraq policy is working just terrifically well, we now have literally millions of refugees fleeing Iraq or becoming internally displaced persons, including huge numbers from the Christian minority, and I think, when it comes to an overall assessment of the Government’s policy on Iraq, let’s look at what’s happening with the refugee exodus. Okay folks we have to zip.
JOURNALIST: Just one last question, if I may. With regards to local roads issue, given that you would have to step in, does that mean that the NSW Government hasn’t done much?
FERGUSON: This is about a shared responsibility. We actually have had a look at AusLink, which is about a national transport infrastructure plan, it was Labor who originally proposed such a plan at the 2001 election. We now have got a process by which we identify the key transport corridors and then sit down and work out the appropriate funding arrangements. That’s why this road has now been brought forward. We have entered into an agreement with the ACT/NSW Governments to put $7.5 million on the table to enable it to be finished rather than waiting for a future debate.
JOURNALIST: Has soon would it be finished, the duplication?
FERGUSON: Well, I would have thought with the ACT Government ready to move in 2008, you’d have to (inaudible) something to say, we would have it well underway, finished within 12 to 18 months.
HARGRAVES: This is a partnership between the Federal Government and the ACT Government. It’s in contrast very, very starkly with an attempt by me some time ago to get Gary Nairn to come and talk to us about this, he refused to do that. Mr Ferguson was very eager to come and talk to the ACT. We have now struck this partnership. The big difficulty with this stretch of road is the railway bridge. That’s what will delay the project. We would say that it would probably … duplicate it would take between 18 months and two years. At the absolute start of construction (inaudible).
RUDD: (inaudible) Manufacturing Summit.
JOURNALIST: Can you tell us briefly what you hope to achieve out of that?
RUDD: I said when I became Leader of the Opposition, that I never want to be the Prime Minister of a country that doesn’t make anything anymore. I’m determined that there is a strong future for manufacturing in this country. What we have done, whether it’s on climate change or housing affordability, is bring people around the table and get their ideas. That’s what we are doing. Once we have done that, we will be responding by way of concrete policies. We did so with housing affordability, two sets of policies have come out of that, with climate change and water, we came out with policies subsequent to that. And we will do the same with manufacturing.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)?
RUDD: We have much more to say on manufacturing and that’s why we are bringing these folk around the table.
Contact: Tracey Winters 0407 099 104