Opinion: Turnbull’s M1 upgrade offer more like highway robbery

FEDERAL governments should drop the facade about being committed to infrastructure projects if it’s going to constantly rewrite the rules, as the PM has with his M1 upgrade offer.

WHEN it comes to infrastructure projects, the Commonwealth has long been the “all care, no responsibility” level of government.

They’re like the carefree uncle who mixes unsolicited parental advice with cash splashes on the kids before returning to the sanctity of their bachelor pad.

Federal administrations of both persuasions have long produced grand plans about their “nation-building” priorities. With these blueprints inevitably comes promises of independent decision-making and heady rhetoric about “driving economic growth”. But in the end what do we get from federal governments? Invariably, it’s commitments driven by political expediency. And that triggers the predictable bunfight over funding with the states.

M1: Turnbull refuses 80-20 funding split

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was at it again this week with his promise to fix the M1 between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Two stretches, including the notorious Gateway Motorway merge, would share in $215 million in funding.

The Palaszczuk Government was supposedly going to gleefully fall over itself to stump up it’s share of the funding. However, the problem was that what Turnbull was promising was a 50/50 funding split.

This is despite the M1 being part of the Commonwealth’s self-stated “National Land Transport Network”, where 80/20 commitments are the norm.

Turnbull insisted the State should pay as the M1 was “their road”. It was a fair deal, the Federal Government claimed, because the route is predominantly used by commuters rather than freight, which it takes responsibility for.

However, the M1 is specifically described in National Land Transport Network mapping as “non-urban”. And it wasn’t freight being addressed but the much more politically-popular issue of “people travelling to and from work”.

Even the RACQ warned the State Government would be “crazy” to take what Turnbull was offering.

Even the RACQ warned the State Government would be “crazy” to take what Malcolm Turnbull was offering.

The State has accepted 50/50 deals before. They’ve done so for the Rocklea to Darra stretch of the Ipswich Motorway.

But that was only after the Federal Government removed itself from any responsibility for this much-maligned section of the motorway and chose the better-maintained Logan Motorway for the national network.

Of course, the State can’t have it all its own way.

They want the pick-and-choose approach when it comes to big-ticket public transport projects such as the Cross-River Rail.

However, federal governments should just drop the facade about being committed to projects and planning if it’s just going to constantly rewrite the rules whenever.

Little wonder a national infrastructure authority made such a good topic for the satirical comedy Utopia.

The whole thing is a joke. And it’s on us.

Steven Wardill is The Courier-Mail’s state political editor

Originally published as Opinion: Turnbull’s M1 upgrade offer more like highway robbery