Albanese government won’t rule out cutting Queensland roads and rail projects
Queensland roads and rail will not be exempt from the looming cuts to projects by the Albanese government. SEARCH THE INTERACTIVE
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Queensland roads and rail will not be exempt from the looming cuts to projects, after Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said she had “a mess to clean up” and need the state’s help to do it.
In a bad sign for the future of the Sunshine Coast rail extension to Maroochydore, Ms King flagged that heavy rail projects were “very expensive” and accused the former Coalition government of funding “rail projects that can never be built”.
Some upgrades to the Bruce Highway, the $3.2bn Sunshine Coast Rail, as well as upgrades to the Centenary Highway, Gateway Motorway and regional roads were expected to be under review, but Labor’s election commitments and Olympic Games venues were exempt.
But she said she would not comment on individual projects before the release of a infrastructure review “shortly”.
It follows Treasurer Cameron Dick telling the Albanese government that Queensland needed “more infrastructure not less” and that it should look to the southern states for cuts.
Meanwhile, Deputy Premier Steven Miles has said cutting road and rail projects in Queensland is a bad idea economically and politically.
Mr Miles on Monday warned any moves to cut infrastructure projects not yet underway might have an impact on medium term inflation but the losses in productivity in the long term would ultimately have a deleterious impact on Queensland.
He also accused the federal government of shifting the goalposts of the infrastructure review, saying its initial purpose was sold as a review of the former Coalition government’s “pork-barrelling” to even out the lopsided commitments in NSW and Victoria’s favour.
“Then they said the review was going even further, and it was designed to address the sustainability of the budget … and now at this late point we hear that the infrastructure review is actually about addressing inflation,” Mr Miles said.
“Inflation has been a problem since before the last federal election, and I make that point because if your intention is to use austerity in your infrastructure spend to address inflation, then you need to do it early not late.
“You need to do it before inflation has come off the boiler (and) we have started to see signs (of that happening.”
Mr Miles said with Queensland’s population growing so rapidly on top of the federal government’s decision to increase overseas migration, the surety of the infrastructure pipeline was necessary.
And if the economic argument wasn’t enough Mr Miles warned cutting Queensland’s infrastructure pipeline would be detrimental for federal Labor in the state — the only jurisdiction where the party went backwards despite clinching government.
“The Bruce Highway run us through every single seat that federal Labor needs to win that it didn’t win last time,” Mr Miles said.
“It literally runs from Longman to Leichhardt, and that’s the political danger if their intention is to cut these projects.”
Ms King also confirmed for the first time that there were 250 projects nationwide focused on by the 90-day review of the infrastructure pipeline.
Cuts to some projects have been recommended, but Ms King would not say how many while negotiations were continuing with state governments.
“The review looked around 250 projects overall, and his made recommendations around cancelling some, it’s made recommendations around making sure we’ve got planning money,” she said.
“I have a mess to clean up and I welcome the states and territories help with that.
“We want to make sure we do everything we possibly can to get inflation down and know that people need to have cost of living relief.”
She said rail projects were often “very, very expensive”.
“When I look through the pipeline and you look at the commitments that were made by previous the previous government … they’ve put money into rail projects that, frankly, can never be built because they have not put enough money into them,” Mr King said.
The Queensland government frequently criticised the funding for the Sunshine Coast rail extension to Maroochydore, saying the funding would not be adequate.
Ms King said it would be up to state governments if they wanted to spend more money on projects
While she said the cuts were needed to create funding overhead for potential cost overruns, the Ms King admitted it would also allow for the Labor government to commit funding towards its own infrastructure projects.
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