Infrastructure Budget

Mr BARRY O'FARRELL: I direct my question to the Premier. Given that he failed to deliver, on time or on budget, major infrastructure projects ranging from the Parramatta to Chatswood rail link, the redevelopment of Royal North Shore Hospital and upgrades to the Pacific Highway, why would the public believe his latest State budget infrastructure promises?

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: The Liverpool transitway, North West Transitway, Parramatta interchange, the redevelopment of Campbelltown Hospital, the first stage of Liverpool Hospital, the redevelopment of Canterbury, Lithgow, Belmont, John Hunter, Gosford and Wyong hospitals, the construction and the delivery of the integrated health—

Mr Barry O'Farrell: Point of order: My point of order relates to relevance. I think the Premier missed the operative words, which were "on time or on budget".

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The House will come to order.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: If we look at budget expenditure and at the underlying variation of 0.26 per cent we find that this is the third budget in a row that has come in smack on target. The Leader of the Opposition asked a question about the delivery of infrastructure—all this from someone who sat with a former transport Minister who said in this House that the southern rail link would be implemented at no cost to taxpayers. But $800 million later we are all still paying for the southern rail link. The former employer—

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will cease calling out.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: A former Premier—the former employer of the Leader of the Opposition—said that we were going to have a mini city. Do members remember the Greiner Government's mini city commitment, which sank without a trace? Do they remember the tilt train from Sweden? We are still waiting for the tilt train, which has not run on our tracks. We are still waiting for the Swedish tilt train promised by the Leader of the Opposition—and this from an Opposition leader who does not have a positive thing to say. Even worse, he does not have a policy with which to bless himself.

He cannot find fault with the budget so today he went on about expenditure and revenue and said that, over the forward estimates period, revenue would go up 4.4 per cent and expenditure would go up 4.5 per cent. He then asked whether they were in alignment. If he goes back a decade and a half or two decades and goes over the structural gap between revenue and expenditure he will find that they are now in alignment. The Leader of the Opposition asked that question earlier and, in order to erode his credibility even more, he had the temerity to ask this question.