NSW has accused the federal government of playing politics and favouring Labor states after it received only $1 billion in infrastructure funding while Victoria scored $2.5 billion and Queensland $1.47 billion.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King on Sunday confirmed the split of the federal government’s $9.6 billion infrastructure spend, which will be a centrepiece of the October 25 budget, Labor’s first since coming to power.
NSW treasurer Matt Kean said the state had been “dudded” by the Commonwealth in its $9.6 billion infrastructure announcement on Sunday.Credit:Peter Rae
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean accused Canberra of playing politics with the allocation of funds towards states with Labor governments.
“It’s no coincidence that Queensland and Victoria – both Labor states – are getting so much more funding than the only mainland Liberal state,” he said. “It was NSW that carried the nation during COVID, it was NSW that took the lion’s share of overseas arrivals, and yet again we’re getting dudded by the Commonwealth just like we do with GST revenue.”
NSW Minister for Transport and Western Sydney David Elliott said the state government had given the Albanese government a long list of infrastructure projects that desperately need funding in western sydney, around the aerotropolis and in regional NSW.
“It’s time for the federal government to stop playing favourites when it comes to allocating taxpayers’ money and prioritise the spending where it’s needed most,” he said.
Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday that Labor had not seen many projects proposed by the NSW Coalition government, partly due to a contentious relationship between the two.
“We had a slightly different relationship in opposition with the Victorians as we did with NSW, so we didn’t really have a lot of projects on the table from opposition with them,” she said. “But we’ll talk to the NSW government in the lead-up to the May budget as to where their priorities are.”
NSW Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes said the funding amounted to $122 for every person in NSW – the country’s most populous state – while in the Northern Territory, which was set to receive $2.5 billion, the amounted to $10,729 for each of its 233,000 citizens.
Stokes put pressure on NSW Labor leader Chris Minns to ask for more funding from the federal Labor government.
“Chris Minns’ silence on this issue is deafening,” he said. “If he was fair dinkum, he’d be fighting the federal government for our share.”
The infrastructure spending proposed by the Albanese government in NSW includes $300 million for western Sydney roads, and a $500 million commitment to begin corridor acquisition for high-speed rail connections between Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle.
A further $162 million would be spent on upgrades to make Sydney’s west more accessible in the lead-up to the construction of the new Western Sydney Airport.
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2022-10-16 04:46:59Z
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