The Federal Government should work with states to stimulate the economy by delivering hundreds of infrastructure projects that it has funded but not completed.
Since taking office the Government has invested more than $5 billion less on rail and road projects than it has announced in its annual Budgets.
They include $100 million worth of projects in its Black Spot Program, $154 million in the Bridges Renewal Program and more than $900 million in its Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan.
Funding has been provided for all of these projects, but milestones have not been met and, in many cases, projects have not even commenced.
The Reserve Bank, economists and Coalition State Treasurers have called on the Government to bring forward infrastructure investment to stimulate the sluggish economy.
Not only has the Government ignored these calls; it consistently fails to deliver funding it has allocated in its Budgets.
It should be working with states to find out why so many projects for which money is available are not being built at a time when the economy needs a shot in the arm.
The right rail and road projects not only create jobs and economic activity in the short term, but lift productivity over the longer term.
There is ample scope for greater investment now, particularly in rural and regional Australia.