Editorial: Queensland being dudded on infrastructure

Whatever defence the federal government trots out for cutting or delaying nearly $3.5bn of Queensland infrastructure projects, the fact is we are being dudded, writes the editor.

Whatever defence the federal government trots out for cutting or delaying nearly $3.5bn of Queensland infrastructure projects, the fact is we are being dudded.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Treasurer Cameron Dick are understandably furious, with the former not only calling the cuts “outrageous” but also insisting, with perhaps a touch of theatre, they could even put the 2032 Olympic Games at risk. But in their fury, the Premier and her Treasurer should recognise the state government’s own role in forcing the federal government’s hand.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King says the rejig of infrastructure priorities is aimed at taming inflationary pressures and dealing with hefty cost blowouts – $32bn worth in the existing 10-year infrastructure program.

The Queensland government is itself adding to these costs pressures with its controversial Best Practices Industry Conditions Policy – otherwise known as the “CFMEU tax” – which sets a new “high floor” for wages and conditions for big publicly funded projects. It boosts construction industry wages by up to 30 per cent, and sees productivity fall by the same. It is a disaster.

But there Ms Palaszczuk and Mr Dick do have grounds to be angry. Ms King claims her review of the $120bn national infrastructure pipeline is also aimed at restoring discipline and proper planning to a system grown unmanageable under the previous Coalition government.

But if that’s the case, why is it still handing over $2.2bn to Victoria for its dubiously justified $125bn suburban rail loop in Melbourne?

The answer is pure politics. As opposition leader, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised the money for then-Victorian premier Dan Andrews’ pet project before last year’s federal election – and is now delivering, without bothering with any of the formal assessments his government is now insisting on for other projects.

At the same time, his government is slashing or postponing spending on vitally important, indeed, lifesaving, road and rail projects in our state.

Just yesterday we revealed the shocking truth about the condition of the Bruce Highway thanks to a now-public document that both federal and state governments tried to hide. The report by the Australian Road Assessment Program was released only after a Right to Information fight. It revealed half of the Bruce Highway, most of it north of Gympie, has a two-star rating or lower.

Although the South East Queensland stretch of the highway has a higher safety rating, anyone who travels regularly between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast knows all too well the urgent need for more upgrades.

In its defence, the federal government can perhaps point to other Queensland projects it has either saved or agreed to tip more money into to deal with cost blowouts – among them the Rockhampton Ring Road, the Pacific Motorway upgrade between Varsity Lakes and Tugun, the Centenary Bridge, Coomera Connector and Gold Coast light rail stage 3.

But with that said, and whatever the suitability of individual projects for federal support, it is clear this exercise by the Albanese government is as much about moving costs to the states as it is about trying to improve the infrastructure funding system.

The political challenge for federal Labor is that Queenslanders have long memories.

BAILEY HASN’T LEARNT FROM LAST TIME

Will state Transport Minister Mark Bailey never learn that the money he is spending actually belongs to the taxpayers and so he should be honest with them?

Apparently not, because he has done it again, not telling us about a huge cost blowout until it was revealed by the feds.

In July and August Mr Bailey weathered the greatest political storm of his career when The Courier-Mail revealed he had attempted to hide a $2.4bn cost blowout in Queensland’s train manufacturing program in Maryborough.

While he never declared the huge cost overrun to taxpayers, Mr Bailey denied any wrongdoing by declaring he had been transparent because the new costings had been uploaded “to the World Wide Web”.

That lame excuse didn’t fly then and it doesn’t fly now, especially as his latest budget blowout has been revealed – again through other channels than the man himself.

The projected cost of the Gold Coast Faster Rail project has doubled to more than $5bn – but we have only discovered this through the release of the federal government’s controversial infrastructure review.

Mr Bailey, who has been labelled “incompetent” by the LNP, argued that project overruns were “not unusual” and blamed soaring steel, asphalt and concrete costs.

That may be the case, but surely the public must be kept abreast of such changes. Surely he should have learnt that lesson.

He shouldn’t be given another chance. It’s time he paid the price.