It started with a vital road. Now NSW’s fight with Canberra is a spaghetti junction of funding needs,from health to the GST.
The increasingly desperate Palaszczuk government’s attacks over federal infrastructure funding are not so much aimed at the Commonwealth as Queensland voters.
It’s 2.4 kilometres long and it will take two years to build. Yet Little Hartley,population 629,is struggling to see the point of their new dual-lane carriageway.
Drilling has begun on the second stage of Sydney’s long-planned Western Harbour Tunnel between Cammeray and Birchgrove.
Victoria is reluctant to build the $13 billion airport line while Canberra is all for it,setting up another messy standoff.
There’s a strong sense in parliament that the end of the year can’t come soon enough,and that is precisely the government’s problem.
The federal infrastructure minister has to explain how a country,facing record rates of migration,will trim almost $11 billion worth of spending on major projects and put more than 30 others in doubt.
The cash-strapped Allan government faces ongoing funding battles over Airport Rail and the Suburban Rail Loop after a federal review of the nation’s infrastructure pipeline.
Infrastructure is like a game of Jenga. Remove one piece and others become less stable.
The WA government also believes about $500 million to cover recent cost escalations on road projects is nowhere to be seen in an independent review of major federally funded works released on Thursday.
A long-awaited federal infrastructure review has landed,with suggestions it was a collaborative effort. Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick says it’s “not true”.