Federal budget 2022: Full South Road budget delay revealed

The Prime Minister has defended the $1.1bn Torrens-to-Darlington funding delay as he visited Adelaide today, insisting the project will happen ... eventually.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed his government’s decision to delay $1.1bn in funding for the North-South corridor upgrade during a visit to Adelaide on Wednesday.

More than $1bn has been stripped from the Torrens-to-Darlington project in the latest federal budget but Mr Albanese said his government was still “cooperating” with the South Australian government.

“There are issues with infrastructure development around the country due to the skill shortages around the country and increased costs,” he said.

“We want to make sure it is delivered as soon as possible (and) we understand the importance of this upgrade.

“We’ll continue to work cooperatively with the South Australian government.”

Following a week of confusion over Labor’s funding arrangements for the plagued road project, senior Infrastructure officials confirming during Budget Estimates proceedings that the funding had been pushed beyond the 2025-26 financial year.

This matches the state government’s decision to also drop the project’s budget by $1.1bn over the next four years in its June budget.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hugged a guinea pig called honey at the Goodstart Early Learning Centre at Somerton Park while he was in Adelaide. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Artist impressions of the tunnels, which may form part of the Torrens-to-Darlington stretch of the North-South Corridor.

But it has prompted outrage from state and federal Opposition members, who have seized on the development to urge Premier Peter Malinauskas to “come clean” on the “future” of the North-South Corridor project, which is expected to blow out in cost by $4bn to $14bn.

State Opposition infrastructure and transport spokesman, Vincent Tarzia, said Labor had “guaranteed cost blowouts and huge delays” on big infrastructure projects.

“It’s unacceptable and it now appears as if the federal government is fed up too,” Mr Tarzia said.

“Without their financial support, it’s just a pipedream.”

Last month Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said the state government would struggle to build the final stage of the North-South Corridor unless the federal government helped cover a potential blowout in the project’s budget.

At a recent Budget Estimates hearing in Canberra, Rob Bradley – the Assistant Secretary of the Infrastructure’s SA, VIC and TAS branch – confirmed $1.1bn had been delayed to match with the state government’s budget for the jointly-funded project.

State Transport and Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis announced in June the Torrens-to-Darlington project would be delayed by a year because of risks with designs produced under the previous government.

A spokesman for Mr Koutsantonis said it was a “fallacy … consistently perpetuated” by the Opposition that the project was “shovel-ready”.

“The former government’s own independent advisory body, Infrastructure South Australia, conducted an audit of the Liberal plans for Torrens-to-Darlington’s market readiness, and gave it an amber rating – indicating major risks with the project,” the spokesman said.

Barker MP Tony Pasin, the Opposition assistant spokesman for infrastructure and transport, also decried the federal budget’s “measly” $460m investment in new infrastructure funding for SA.

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