Federal Budget Queensland transport funding a con: RACQ

QUEENSLANDERS have been ripped off by the Federal Budget, with funding for major transport projects hidden behind smoke and mirrors, according to the RACQ.

• Budget is Trad-gic
• Commuters win big

QUEENSLANDERS have been ripped off by the Federal Budget, with funding for major transport projects hidden behind smoke and mirrors, according to the RACQ.

The motoring group’s head of public policy Rebecca Michael said total funding for road and rail projects in Tuesday’s Budget was $400 million less than last year, with only a small fraction to be spent in the coming year.

“This Budget, while the money is directed where the RACQ would like to see it, is all about smoke and mirrors,” she said.

“There’s a lot of promises that depend on the Government being re-elected.”

She said some of the promised funding went well beyond the forward estimates out in the “never never”.

While she welcomed funding for the Brisbane Metro project, Pacific Motorway and Bruce Highway, Dr Michael said the devil was in the detail, as the Government had “underfunded and underdelivered”.

“What’s really disappointing is that the Federal Government announced $1 billion funding for the M1 (Gold Coast section), and next financial year we’ll see barely $100 million,” she said.

“We look at the urban congestion fund, which was touted as $1 billion congestion buster, but there’s no funding whatsoever in the 2018-19 financial year.”

She said while a combined $690 million had been promised to the Metro project and Sunshine Coast rail upgrade, only $10 million would be spent on each in the coming financial year.

“That’s only going to barely cover planning studies, so we would have much more of that money come forward to now,” she said.

“Unfortunately Queenslanders will only benefit if the Government spends every dollar making sure these projects happen.”

Dr Michael said it was disappointing that Cross River Rail had been snubbed, as it was a key piece of infrastructure that was needed to deliver the full benefits of projects such as the Metro.