Subjects:\u00a0 Government investment in infrastructure, current political environment<\/p>\n
DARREN CHESTER:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s great to be here at the National Infrastructure Summit where I\u2019ve just been talking about the Government\u2019s ten year plan for $75 billion of investment in infrastructure right around Australia. We\u2019re not just talking about major projects in our capital cities, but also our regional areas, our $8.4 billion equity investment in the Inland Rail project. For 100 years people have been talking about this project for so long but we are getting on with the job of delivering it. There\u2019s our $5.3 billion equity investment in the Western Sydney Airport, another project which will shape our nation for years to come. We\u2019re getting on with the job of delivering the infrastructure that our kids and our grandkids will thank us for. These are projects that will create jobs during the construction period, but also provide longer term benefits right throughout Australia. Again not just in our cities but also in our regional areas. Just yesterday I was in Victoria with the Prime Minister and we were able to announce $1.6 billion in regional rail programmes and it\u2019s great to see the Federal Government coming on board with the lion\u2019s share of that funding. Again these are projects that will change people\u2019s lives and they\u2019ll save people\u2019s lives. They\u2019ll change lives by reducing congestion and improving productivity and they\u2019ll save lives by taking some of those cars off our roads and allowing people to travel throughout our regional areas on a better passenger rail network. So we\u2019ve got exciting plans for the future and it\u2019s great to be here having those discussions with some of the leaders of the industry.<\/p>\n
QUESTION:<\/p>\n
So obviously there\u2019s been a bit of a fallout from the Christopher Pyne comments. Do you think there should be a reshuffle on the frontbench?<\/p>\n
DARREN CHESTER:<\/p>\n
Decisions about Ministers and senior roles in the Government are quite rightly made by the Prime Minister in consultation with the Deputy Prime Minister. I\u2019m not going to do a running commentary on those roles, it\u2019s up to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to decide who gets to serve in these great positions within our Federal Coalition Government.<\/p>\n
QUESTION:<\/p>\n
Do you feel confident if there was a reshuffle that you would hold on to your portfolio?<\/p>\n
DARREN CHESTER:<\/p>\n
I feel confident that right now as the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport I\u2019m getting on with the job of delivering an infrastructure program that Australians want to see. Australians want to see better roads, better rail, new airports \u2013 they want to see a government which is focused on policies which will make a difference in their lives, they don\u2019t want us talking about individual personalities.<\/p>\n
QUESTION:<\/p>\n
What\u2019s The Nationals\u2019 view though of the turmoil within the Liberal Party?<\/p>\n
DARREN CHESTER:<\/p>\n
Well, politics is a team sport and we need to play as a team, we need to focus on the issues that matter for Australians. In this case, for me, it\u2019s infrastructure. People are focused on can we build better road networks in their communities, can we improve the rail system, are we getting on with the job of the Western Sydney Airport and the answer to all those questions is \u2018yes\u2019. We\u2019re focused on policies that will deliver real outcomes in people\u2019s lives and I\u2019m not even interested in this personality politics. Quite frankly it bores people and it bores me.<\/p>\n
QUESTION:<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s quite soon after the government was elected that there\u2019s talk of a reshuffle, it\u2019s not been long since they\u2019ve been in government.<\/p>\n
DARREN CHESTER:<\/p>\n
The media like to speculate about a whole range of things. I know we have a united Cabinet working very well together, Prime Minister Turnbull has done a great job in having a consultative approach to dealing with these big issues. In my role as Infrastructure Minister he has been very supportive and backed me on a whole range of projects which we\u2019ve been able to deliver now, whether it\u2019s the Inland Rail project or the Western Sydney Airport or the $1.6 billion for regional rail in Victoria. The Prime Minister has backed me 100 per cent and I appreciate his support and his encouragement on these projects that will make a real difference in peoples lives. Speculation about future jobs and future roles quite frankly doesn\u2019t interest me and I don\u2019t think it interests the Australian people.<\/p>\n
QUESTION:<\/p>\n
What do you make of Tony Abbott\u2019s behaviour recently?<\/p>\n
DARREN CHESTER:<\/p>\n
As I said, politics is team sport. We need to play as a team, we need to work together to deliver the outcomes that Australians want. Australians are focused on having a government that delivers for them, they\u2019re not interested in internal political games.<\/p>\n
QUESTION:<\/p>\n
Do you have any advice for Tony Abbott?<\/p>\n
DARREN CHESTER:<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve long since given up giving free advice to my colleagues.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Subjects:\u00a0 Government investment in infrastructure, current political environment DARREN CHESTER: It\u2019s great to be here at the National Infrastructure Summit where I\u2019ve just been talking about the Government\u2019s ten year plan for $75 billion of investment in infrastructure right around Australia. We\u2019re not just talking about major projects in our capital cities, but also our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darrenchester.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}