The Morrison Government is failing to deliver the critical nation building infrastructure that will produce jobs, lift wages and stimulate Australia’s economy – and even the NSW Liberals agree.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has launched an extraordinary attack on this hopeless do-nothing third term Federal Government, comparing them to “local councillors”.
“I hear federal ministers saying their priority is to fund traffic lights, car parks and roundabouts. They need to be reminded they are federal ministers not local councillors,” Mr Perrottet told The Daily Telegraph.
“The Federal Government should stick to its knitting of nation building programs and assisting states with major transport infrastructure.”
Federal Labor couldn’t agree more.
Mr Perrottet’s intervention is another damning indictment of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government’s failures on infrastructure. Not even their own party can keep up the charade.
During its six years of cuts and chaos, the Liberals have sidelined Infrastructure Australia and failed to make the investments necessary to keep pace with Australia’s population growth.
They should heed the calls of the NSW Liberals – and the Reserve Bank of Australia – and fast-track major infrastructure projects, rather than pushing them off into the never-never.
As this month’s National Accounts made clear, the Australian economy is floundering and middle Australia is struggling. If this Government was even remotely competent they would invest in infrastructure to get our economy moving again – as Labor did in response to the Global Financial Crisis.
If the Government wants to start taking infrastructure seriously they should match the $10 billion worth of extra projects Labor took to the last election, many of them shovel-ready.
Labor is committed to the nation-building infrastructure Australia needs. An Albanese Labor Government would work with state and territory governments to get projects up and running as soon as possible.
THURSDAY, 20 JUNE 2019