An overhaul of the Commonwealth’s $120bn infrastructure pipeline will gut funding for 50 projects, but overall support will not be reduced, Infrastructure Minister Catherine King has said.
NSW will be the worst hit by the infrastructure overhaul, losing 17 projects including highways, bypasses, and controversial commuter car parks.
In Victoria, a dozen projects will be starved of federal funding, including the Geelong Fast Rail and a scoping study for the Melbourne Inland Rail Terminal, alongside several road transport projects.
The sunshine state has seen funding for nine projects cut, with funding for a further five projects, including the Sunshine Coast Light Rail ringfenced until a feasibility study is completed.
Federal funding for five projects in both South Australia and Western Australia will be slashed.
In the ACT and Tasmania, one project will be axed in each jurisdiction.
The funding announcement follows the release of independent review of the Commonwealth’s infrastructure pipeline which found the existing approach had “led to a clogged infrastructure pipeline that does not reflect current market capacity, particularly when considering that forecast Infrastructure Investment Program expenditure is projected to continue growing over the forward estimates.”
New projects, not currently in the pipeline, will preferably be funded on a 50-50 split between state and territory governments.
More to come