Labor blasted for secret infrastructure cuts

Teal independents, integrity experts and the federal opposition have blasted Catherine King over a lack of transparency in cutting 50 infrastructure projects.

Teal independents, integrity experts and the federal opposition have blasted Infrastructure Minister Catherine King over a lack of transparency after she refused to release her rationale for cutting 50 infrastructure projects. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

Teal independents, integrity experts and the federal opposition have blasted Infrastructure Minister Catherine King for a lack of transparency after she refused to release her rationale for cutting 50 infrastructure projects.

A ratings agency revealed it was looking at the decision to downgrade federal funding ­arrangement with the states, from an 80-20 split to an even share.

Mackellar MP Sophie Scamps called for the Albanese government to implement a clear and transparent criteria for assessing and funding capital works in order “to avoid a repeat of the sort of pork-barrelling we saw from the previous Coalition government”.

Half the 50 scrapped projects from the federal government’s review into its $120bn pipeline were in Liberal/Nationals-held seats, while just nine Labor-held electorates will have funding ­reduced for road and rail projects.

“I am disappointed that we don’t have any clear rationale from the government for its decisions,” Dr Scamps said. “These are billions of taxpayer dollars. I would like to see a transparent process for assessing and funding infrastructure in the future.”

North Sydney MP Kylea Tink, who campaigned on a platform of integrity, said the review “isn’t fully cooked because the full details and cost-benefit analysis of these projects aren’t publicly available”.

Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel said: “These decisions should be based on independent advice, the priorities of public need and safety, on the evidence and in a totally hands-off manner, as the government has now instituted for a range of smaller grants.”

S&P Global Ratings analyst Anthony Walker said the agency was looking at the decision to downgrade federal funding ­arrangement.

NSW and Victoria are struggling to deal with finances that have been ravaged as a result of the pandemic lockdowns and a massive rise in infrastructure spending and debt.

“Should the big east-coast states of NSW and Victoria ­decide to plug the funding gap out of their own budgets, then they “should have the fiscal ­capacity within their credit rating to do that”, Mr Walker said.

Public integrity expert Geoffrey Watson said Labor should ­release its reasoning behind its response to the infrastructure ­review to remove any suggestion of there being “a political basis for cancelling some and going ahead with others”.