Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers warns of ‘difficult decisions’ for infrastructure spending

Half a billion dollars worth of infrastructure upgrades are under scrutiny as the Federal Treasurer warns “difficult decisions” need to be made.

Hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure developments could be on the line as the Federal Treasurer warns some projects will need to be cut back to control inflation.

On Sunday Treasurer Jim Chalmers said tough decisions would need to be made in the wake of the long awaited-awaited infrastructure review.

Appearing on ABC’s Insiders, Dr Chalmers said the government was heeding advice from the International Monetary Fund to scale back its record $30bn year of public spending.

“We’re going to need to make some difficult decisions about the infrastructure pipeline, which factors in those $33 billion of blowouts from projects announced by our predecessors,” the Treasurer said.

“The IMF has made an important point which is that we need to roll out our infrastructure investment in a way that gets us value for money but also in a more measured and co-ordinated way.”

Infrastructure Minister Catherine King is currently considering a wholesale review of the infrastructure grants.

A 90-day review of the infrastructure funding, which was a key Labor election promise, remains underway.

In South Australia, half a billion dollars worth of road upgrades are potentially under the axe.

The North South Corridor development was spared from the evaluation, but $202m Truro bypass proposal, $85m upgrade of Marion Road and Sir Bradman Drive and road upgrades around Hahndorf are in the firing line.

Map of proposed Truro Bypass. Picture: Dept of Infrastructure

A State Government spokesman said there was no concern about the North South Corridor’s funding.

“Like other state and territory governments, we keenly await the outcome of the federal infrastructure review,” he said.

“We have no concern whatsoever that there will be any impact on the scope or timing of the River Torrens to Darlington project, with early and associated works including the resurfacing of South Rd already well underway.”

Opposition infrastructure spokesman Vincent Tarzia said slowing construction in South Australia would risk local economies and thousands of jobs.

“We need construction to thrive in our state – slowing it down will have disastrous consequences,” he said.