Federal budget’s $323m infrastructure for NT won’t be spent for three years
Not a single cent of over $300m in infrastructure spending in the NT will be spent for at least the next three years, according to Labor.
Northern Territory
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THE Northern Territory won’t see more than scraps of its promised infrastructure upgrades for at least five years, according to the budget fine print.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday hailed the $323m spend on NT projects as a major win for Territorians.
That figure included $150m in national road upgrades.
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But the budget papers showed virtually none of that would be spent for at least another five years.
Not a single dollar would be spent between now and the end of 2022-23, with only $4m earmarked for upgrades in 2024-25.
It’s led a furious federal Labor to launch an extraordinary attack on the Morrison government.
“The Morrison Government has form in making announcements and not delivering,” NT Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy said.
“A closer look at the budget papers reveal the NT will have to wait four years for just a crumb of the promised funding for vital road infrastructure,” Senator McCarthy said.
Labor claimed that 99 per cent of the infrastructure funding would be spent beyond the forward estimates and could be three elections into the future.
Fellow Labor colleague and Solomon MP Luke Gosling also claimed yesterday that government funding for road safety seemed to be “out in the never-never”.
But CLP Senator Sam McMahon said the slow trickle of funds is due to the Territory government and not Canberra.
“The Territory Labor Government has been hopeless at spending previous federal government funding and I have no confidence it will be any better this time,” Ms McMahon said.
“Given it already has a backlog of approximately $1.7 billion in road infrastructure spending and will have trouble getting out the ‘spend it or lose it’ $44 million I obtained for them before the June 30 deadline, I have serious concerns about its ability to manage any project,” she said.
Senator McMahon claimed the NT government was trying to recruit 44 new employees to keep up with the planning backlog.
Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics Minister Eva Lawler said the department was hiring more staff “to ensure timely delivery of our infrastructure projects”.
“We are a government who has a pipeline of work and works proactively with the federal government to deliver projects,” Ms Lawler said.
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