Federal infrastructure investment in Western Australia will plummet by two thirds over the next four years, according to evidence given by Infrastructure Department bureaucrats during last week’s Senate Estimates.
Since it delivered Budget 2018, the Turnbull Government has attempted to con Australians into believing it has finally stopped cutting investment in nation-building infrastructure.
But under oath at Senate Estimates the Government’s own Infrastructure Department confirmed that annual Federal infrastructure grants to Western Australia are about to enter freefall.
According to their evidence, Federal infrastructure grants for Western Australia will fall from the promised $1.2 billion in 2017-18 to $411 million by 2021-22. That’s a 65 per cent reduction for WA - a state that requires increased infrastructure investment to support its growing population and boost economic growth.
The Budget Papers also show that of the new projects funded in this year’s Budget, only about half of the money allocated to them will be available over the next four years.
The other half is being pushed into the Never-Never beyond the Budget Forward Estimates.
This means voters would have to re-elect Malcolm Turnbull twice more before important projects such as METRONET, Bunbury Outer Ring Road, Tonkin Highway upgrades and construction of an interchange at the Roe Highway / Great Eastern Highway Bypass intersection are delivered.
After years of cuts, Western Australia requires investment in railways and roads now, not years from now.
Only Labor can deliver a Fair Go for WA..
Over six years, the previous Federal Labor Government delivered nearly $7 billion for Western Australia, lifting per capita infrastructure investment from $154 per Western Australian to $261.


MONDAY, 28 MAY, 2018