Malcolm Turnbull has flatly denied the figures that are outlined in his own Budget papers that reveal that infrastructure funding this year has been slashed by $1.6 billion from a promised $9.2 billion to $7.6 billion.
In Question Time today I asked the Prime Minister to confirm these figures.
He simply ignored my question.
Despite his spin, Mr Turnbull has cut infrastructure investment.
Worse still, Budget Paper No. 3 shows that in coming years, total Federal infrastructure investment will fall further off a cliff, dropping to $4.2 billion by 2020-21 – see graph below.
That’s why peak infrastructure industry group Infrastructure Partnerships Australia last night said: “Real budgeted capital funding to its lowest level in more than a decade’’ and noted that the Government had attempted to use a combination of underspending, re-profiling and spin to conceal cuts.