Shadow infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese has called on Malcolm Turnbull to return to the nation building drawing board after “scraping” back into power at the federal election on July 2.
Albanese this week said the newly re-elected prime minister lacked “a cogent plan” for Australian infrastructure.
“Despite Mr Turnbull feigning interest in infrastructure policy, his 2016 election campaign included no funding commitments for critical projects like the Melbourne Metro, Brisbane’s Cross River Rail, Adelaide’s Adelink or the Western Sydney Rail project,” Albanese said.
“The Prime Minister also had no policy for broader urban issues beyond proposing ill-defined ‘city deals,’ which he used as political fixes to copy strong Labor commitments in politically sensitive areas like Townsville and Launceston.”
By Albanese’s calculation’s Turnbull allocated $750 million to 77 small road project around the country – 75 located in Coalition electorates.
“In contrast, Labor offered a clear, comprehensive and integrated infrastructure plan including investment in urban rail, light rail, roads and important rail freight projects like the duplication of Sydney’s Port Botany freight line,” he said.
“Labor’s infrastructure plan was strategic. It was aimed at eliminating bottlenecks, building capacity and boosting productivity as a way to facilitate economic and jobs growth.”
Albanese believes the strong support for Labor in suburban areas, as reflected in the election, indicates Australians “want a government prepared to tackle traffic congestion, which Infrastructure Australia has warned will cost the nation $53 billion a year by 2031 without action now.”
But instead of playing politics, Mr Albanese failed to mention the most important Infrastructure Project of all – Inland Rail.
What does that tell us?