Sports rorts, Urban Congestion Fund, the Morrison government were rotten to the core.
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Morrison-era fund earmarked 80 per cent of projects for Liberal seats
By Shane Wright
A Morrison government fund to reduce traffic congestion across the country allocated 83 per cent of its projects – worth almost $3 billion – to Liberal-held seats, while suffering from huge cost blowouts and ongoing delays.
The federal Infrastructure Department,
in answer to a large number of questions from a Labor MP, has revealed just a quarter of the money set aside in the $4.8 billion Urban Congestion Fund ended up being promised to Labor-held seats over the past four years.
The fund was established in the 2018-19 budget with a price tag of $1 billion. By the end of 2019, it had grown to $4.8 billion with a stated objective improving “pinch points” and traffic safety while also increasing the efficiency of urban commuter and freight movements.
Four of these projects were pledged to the Melbourne seat of Aston in the run-up to the 2019 election: a $4 million upgrade to Boronia Rd and a $1m car park in Ferntree Gully are still on track, while $3.5 million for Napoleon Road and $6.5 million for a Dorset Road extension were both spiked in the Albanese government’s October 2022 budget.
The shelved road projects have now become a key focus in
the Aston byelection after federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King confirmed Labor would not build them, while Liberal candidate Roshena Campbell has promised to fight for the road upgrades.
The congestion fund included the commuter car park fund, originally slated to cost $500 million, which was the focus of a scathing auditor-general’s report. However, the congestion fund has not been subject to independent scrutiny.
The infrastructure department, in answers to questions from Labor’s Julian Hill who heads the parliament’s public accounts committee, identified 173 projects under the fund.
Of those, 10 – worth a combined $571.6 million – were spread across electorates held by both major parties.
Labor-held seats attracted 26 projects worth a combined $954 million, the seat of Melbourne held by Greens leader Adam Bandt was promised one project worth $5 million, while the independent seat of Clark in Tasmania was also promised a single project worth $13.5 million.
Under the fund, 136 Liberal-held electorates were promised works worth a combined $2.7 billion.
While many of the projects include commuter car parks, there are also dozens worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. They include a $144 million commitment to a road project in the then-Liberal-held seat of Hasluck in WA and a $50 million pledge in the then-Liberal-held seat of Reid in Sydney.
Hill said the response by the department was damning.
“They ran a giant, stupendous, humongous, massive, colossal, vast, immense, mammoth, gigantic slush fund that treated taxpayers’ funds as Liberal election cash,” he told this masthead.
“Communities suffering from congestion are right to be angry that they didn’t have a chance to apply and that there was no transparency to this dodgy process.”
Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie said the Albanese government had reviewed all Urban Congestion Fund projects ahead of the October budget last year.
“As a result of that review, the Labor government has decided to continue to deliver the bulk of the Urban Congestion Fund projects, which have been rebranded as part of the broader Infrastructure Investment program,” she said.
“In total, 107 Urban Congestion Fund projects worth $2.96 billion have been retained by Labor, including 60 projects that are in the ‘in planning’ stage and 47 projects that are in the ‘under construction’ or ‘underway’ stage at the time of the review.
“Of the 10 commuter carparks projects that are still in the planning stage, seven are in Labor electorates and four in Liberal electorates including one that is shared by two electorates.”
The details provided by the infrastucture department also reveal the inaccuracy of the original cost estimates used to budget projects inside the fund.
Of the more than 170 projects, there were funding variations in 96 of them.
In some cases, the original estimates proved far too low. An upgrade to the Leach Highway in the then Liberal-held seat of Swan in Western Australia was originally forecast to cost $46.5 million. It is now estimated to cost $68 million.
In 2019, the then-government expected a road upgrade in Penrith in the Liberal-held seat of Lindsay to cost $63.5 million. It is now forecast to cost $127.7 million.
Some projects, promised in 2019, are not expected to be completed until 2026 or 2027.
On coming to office, the new government decided to axe 19 projects. The government had spent $61.8 million on these projects which were worth almost $600 million.
There is still almost $900 million in unallocated cash in the congestion fund.
A breakdown of more than 160 projects promised under the $5 billion Urban Congestion Fund shows 83 per cent of them were aimed at Liberal-held seats.
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