Federal Budget 2017: Anger as industry groups and politicians say SA ‘dudded’

SOUTH Australia has been “dudded” and “severely short changed” by missing out on any significant infrastructure spending in the Federal Budget, a plethora of industry groups and politicians say.

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SOUTH Australia has been “dudded” and “severely short changed” by missing out on any significant infrastructure spending in the Federal Budget, a plethora of industry groups and politicians say.

The Government announced a $75 billion in infrastructure funding and financing package over the next decade but only about $200 million in new money was committed to SA — prompting Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis to accuse it of “completely ignoring” the state.

Civil Contractors Federation of SA chief executive Phil Sutherland accused the Government of “severely short changing SA” on the crucial infrastructure front.

“Other states have received billions of dollars in the Budget, while SA — again, the poor relative — receives a pittance,” he said.

“The Federal Government’s investment in infrastructure in SA pails into insignificance when compared with the investment earmarked for infrastructure in the other states.”

Almost $600 million of Federal funding will be pumped into SA infrastructure projects in 2017-18 for projects already underway.

But SA Freight Council executive officer Evan Knapp said this was not enough.

‘‘While east coast transport networks have been funded to the tune of many billions of dollars, the Turnbull Coalition government has ignored SA’s infrastructure needs,” Mr Knapp said..

“There is ... no funding for SA freight rail projects, and no guaranteed funding for new passenger rail in SA including the proposed Adelink tram network.”

Mr Knapp was disappointed there was no funding announced for remaining sections of the North South Corridor along South Road, which the Coalition under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott committed to finishing in a decade.

“All current sections of the corridor will be finished by 2019-20, leaving the skilled road construction workforce that has been developed on these projects out of a job, and SA with a half-finished urban freeway,” he said.

RAA road safety senior manager Charles Mountain said the failure to fund South Rd would cause significant delays to the overall upgrade.

“The Abbott Government had committed to a complete upgrade of South Road within a 10 year period. Without a funding commitment for the next section, it’s very unlikely this commitment will be honoured,” he said.

“The uncompleted sections of South Road continue to be a major frustration for motorists and the transport industry, causing congestion on what should be a free flowing road.”

Mr Mountain said about $373 million was needed to upgrade the section of South Rd between the Superway and Pym St, which was the next section earmarked for completion.

But the Government said it was committed to the North-South corridor but that the State Government had not provided it with the business cases required to sign off on funding more projects.

SA Labor politicians joined together to condemn the Government for its “utter contempt for every South Australian”.

“There’s nothing for Whyalla and nothing to help Holden workers or associated automotive workers find new jobs, even though no state has suffered more from this Government than SA,” they said in a joint statement.

Senator Nick Xenophon labelled the Budget a “mixed bag”.

“Ultimately SA has been dudded over national infrastructure spending,” he said.

“But if it wasn’t for NXT securing funding for key projects in manufacturing, apprenticeships, SA roads, solar thermal and the Proton Therapy Centre, SA would have been much worse off.”

State Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was supposed to deliver infrastructure funds for the whole country, not just Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

“I can’t think of any other time since federation where South Australia has not received any new infrastructure spending. Not one new road, not one new tram, not one piece of infrastructure out of a record $70 billion spend,” Mr Koutsantonis said.

Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan said the lack of infrastructure funds was “absolutely unbelievable”.

He again asserted the Oakden Crossing project, North-South corridor upgrade and the electrification of the Gawler train line were “shovel ready projects ready to go”, despite assertions from Infrastructure Australia and the Federal Department it had yet to receive finalised business cases for them.

State Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said there was plenty in the budget for South Australia, but accused Mr Koutsantonis of being a “whinger in chief” rather than putting the interests of the state first.

He repeatedly dodged questions whether SA got a raw deal when it came to infrastructure funding, but said Commonwealth funding continued to rise despite the State Government’s protestations the State had been ripped off.

“We would always want more here in SA, but I think the Government needs to start looking at it itself,” Mr Marshall said.

“55 per cent of the budget now comes from the Commonwealth, it’s been increasing year on year... every single year there’s more funding coming in and every year Jay Weatherill and Tom Koutsantonis want more.”