Bill Shorten to announce huge infrastructure jobs package

BILL Shorten is expected to announce a huge jobs package in Brisbane today, saying an overhaul of major projects is needed.

Gold Coast tram on the Southport Bridge . (sorry cloudy morning no sun ) . Picture Mike Batterham

BILL Shorten today is promising thousands of extra jobs from a $10 billion reorganisation of how government invests in infrastructure.

Close to 30,000 would be created directly from an overhaul of funding of major projects, the Opposition Leader claims, with just three individual projects boosting employment by 10,000.

And Mr Shorten believes improvements to productivity from the capital works would create thousands more in the general economy.

A Labor government would turn the existing advisory body Infrastructure Australia into an independent funding source for big private/public capital works developments, as investor or guarantor.

“Just as the Reserve Bank of Australia is the independent authority at the centre of monetary policy, Infrastructure Australia will be at the centre of capital investment, driving results that are in the national interest,” Mr Shorten will say in Brisbane today.

He reveals in a speech the newly-defined body would be an “active participant in the infrastructure market, mobilising private sector finance”.

It would have $10 billion to deploy and other funds could be expected from Australia’s superannuation industry — which could have $4 trillion in deposits by 2025 — and international investors.

Mr Shorten argues the objective is to fill big gaps in the demand for infrastructure, and to create jobs.

Labor says it has used a conservative analysis prepared by Infrastructure Partners Australia, which shows a $10 billion investment would directly create approximately 26,000 jobs and add $7.5 billion a year to economic growth.

“Building these projects is Labor’s priority, because building infrastructure creates jobs,” says Mr Shorten’s speech.

“If we look at the Cross-River Rail, Melbourne Metro and the Perth Metronet for example — these three projects alone would create over 10,000 jobs in construction.

“Here in Brisbane, the Cross-River Rail would create an additional 5000 indirect jobs, as a result of productivity improvements.

“And if you take the Pacific Highway upgrade as an example of value for money — every dollar we invest, returns three to our economy.

“These are the concrete benefits of viable, productive infrastructure investment — delivering direct and indirect jobs in the immediate and long-term.”

The $10 billion for Infrastructure Australia would come from an existing $3.6 billion in the Building Australia Fund, and from “government borrowings, taking advantage of the historically low cost of government debt”.

The initial list of projects that Labor will support include:

• The Airport Rail to Badgerys Creek in Sydney, connecting the Western and South lines

• The Melbourne Metro

• The Cross River Rail project in Brisbane

• The ‘G’ Light Rail on the Gold Coast

• Planning work on the Ipswich Motorway Darra to Rocklea

• Tasmania’s Midland Highway

• Perth public transport

• Gawler Line electrification in Adelaide

• The Pacific and Bruce Highway packages, projects that have been underway for several years, but need to be fast tracked to completion

“Just last week the ABS found that public sector investment in infrastructure has fallen by 20.1 per cent for the June 2015 quarter, compared with the last quarter Labor was in government,” Mr Shorten will say.

“Infrastructure Australia has estimated that the economic cost of under investment is projected to reach $53 billion a year by 2031.”