Marginal seats big winners on infrastructure

Australians in marginal electorates to benefit most from the “congestion busting’’ budget | IS YOUR SEAT A WINNER?

The new Gateway extension for northbound traffic in Brisbane. Picture: AAP

Australians living in marginal electorates are the big winners from the Morrison government’s “congestion busting” budget infrastructure package, with road upgrades, rail projects and commuter carparks sprinkled over battleground seats.

The Australian’s analysis of the government’s transport infrastructure spending shows the government has approved projects in swing seats across the nation, with Coalition-held marginals vastly more prevalent in the list of seats receiving funding.

Of 36 battleground seats found to be receiving new infrastructure funding, 27 are Coalition-held.

Government infrastructure com­mitments have been boosted from $75 billion to $100bn over 10 years, with the inclusion of projects such as the $2bn Melbourne-to-Geelong fast rail and $3.5bn for Western Sydney Airport rail.

The size of the urban congestion fund has been increased fourfold to $4bn, with $500 million allocated to the commuter carpark fund, which budget documents say is aimed at encouraging people to “park and ride” in order to take “tens of thousands of cars off our major roads per day”.

In Melbourne, $68m will pay for 1500 car spaces, meaning each space will cost taxpayers more than $45,000.

The extra carparks will cater for just two trains full of commuters, and will be built at six train stations in the southeastern suburbs: Croydon, Ferntree Gully, Mitcham, Ringwood, Bentleigh and Hampton.

They were nonetheless welcom­e news for Sarah Lardlew, 30, who lives in Melbourne’s southeast and drives to the station to take a 30-minute train ride to work each day.

“More parking would be amazing, ” Ms Lardlew said.

She said Melbourne’s roads needed a serious boost because “they’re pretty chockers” and the city’s trains “are full but they’re running a lot”.

Ms Lardlew said she was un­decided on who she would vote for at the looming federal election.

Mitcham, Ringwood and Croydon are in the Liberal seat of Deakin, held by Michael Sukkar on a margin of 6.4 per cent. Ferntree Gully is in Urban Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge’s neighbouring seat of Aston (7.4 per cent), while Bentleigh and Hampton are in Liberal backbencher Tim Wilson­’s bayside seat of Goldstein.

While Mr Wilson holds the seat with a 12.7 per cent margin, the Liberal­s clung to the corresponding state seat of Brighton with a margin of just 1.1 per cent at the November state election.

GRAPHIC: Key seats showered with congestion-busting money

Recent union polling had Labor ahead in Goldstein 52 per cent to 48, two-party-preferred.

In NSW, $50m has been allocated to four commuter car parks — at Gosford and Woy Woy on the central coast and Panania and Hurstville in southern Sydney. Panania is in the seat of Banks (Liberal 1.4 per cent), while Hurstville is just across the border in the seat of Barton, which Labor won in the 2016 election and holds by 8.3 per cent. The Gosford and Woy Woy car parks are in the seat of Robertson (Liberal 1.1 per cent).

Ferny Grove, in Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson, and Mango Hill in fellow northern Brisbane MP Luke Howarth’s seat of Petrie, will be the beneficiaries of $15m of commuter carpark upgrades in Queensland.

Mr Dutton and Mr Howarth hold their seats by margins of just 1.7 per cent.

Marginal seats down the north and central Queensland coast will benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects. The seats include Leichhardt (LNP, 4 per cent), Herbert (ALP, 0.02 per cent), Capricornia (LNP, 0.6 per cent) and Flynn (LNP, 1 per cent).

The $349m Tonkin Highway upgrade in Western Australia will benefit drivers in Swan (Liberal, 3.6 per cent), Hasluck (Liberal, 2.1 per cent), and Cowan (Labor, 0.7 per cent), while Attorney-General­ Christian Porter’s seat of Pearce (3.6 per cent) and Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie’s seat of Canning (6.8 per cent) will each receive tens of millions of dollars worth of new road funding.

The South Australian seat of Sturt (Liberal, 5.8 per cent), being vacated by manager of government business Christopher Pyne, will receive almost $100m in funding for three local road projects.

Labor-held seats in the Northern Territory and Tasmania buck the trend. Labor MP Warren Snowdon’s seat of Lingiari will receive­ more than $622m in new road funding as Alice Springs councillor Jacinta Price battles to overturn an 8.2 per cent margin to win it for the Coalition.

Marginal Labor seats of Braddon (1.7 per cent) and Bass (5.4 per cent) will each receive tens of millions in road funding in Tasmania.

Back in Victoria, Corangamite, the seat held by Assistant Minister for Social Services, Housing and Disability Sarah Henderson, will be the main winner from the Geelong­ fast rail plan.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews­ was cynical about the project yesterday: “People in Geelong would need to vote for Sarah Henderson in seven weeks’ time, in another three years and three years after that before any real funding’s provided to that project.”

The budget allocated $50m over four years for the Geelong rail project, which Scott Morrison expects­ to begin construction in 18 months.

Speaker Tony Smith’s seat of Casey, held by 4.5 per cent, will get $300m for sealing roads in the Dandenong Ranges, $110m for the duplication of Wellington Road, and $20m for the Maroondah Highway in the Yarra Valley.

The southeastern Melbourne seat of Dunkley, held by Liberal backbencher Chris Crewther but notionally Labor by a 1 per cent margin following a redistribution, will benefit from a $1.14bn fund for suburban road upgrades in Melbourn­e’s north and southeast, as well as $70m to extend Thomsons Road, $65m for a Mornington Peninsula highway duplic­ation, and $30m for Ballarto Road.

Infrastructure Australia chief Anna Chau said her organisation’s priority list for the year had identified regional road safety improvements as a national priority. She welcomed the announcement of a local and state government road safety package and the creation of a new Office of Road Safety.

“Funding decisions are a matter for governments but commun­ities expect decisions on infra­structure to be robust, transparent and accountable,” she said.