It is now obvious why the Morrison Government waited 43 days before announcing the 15 projects to be “fast-tracked” as part of a JobMaker scheme – it is nothing more than another dud announcement focused more on headlines than Australian workers.
Despite lofty promises, this announcement will fail to deliver a single job-creating project north of Brisbane or in the Northern Territory.
Even before the current crisis, Labor and stakeholders like the RBA were calling on the Government to bring forward infrastructure funding to strengthen the sluggish economy.
The current economic crisis has made increased investment more important than ever.
But instead of building much needed infrastructure, the Morrison Government is focused on overhyped announcements and snappy slogans.
The projects announced to be “fast-tracked” today include:
• A new Perth Airport runway planned to be delivered before the end of the decade, depending on now uncertain future demand,
• The Coffs Harbour Bypass already due to be starting by the end of the year, and,
• The M12 project in Sydney which won’t begin until 2022.
This is on top of the already announced “fast-tracking” of Inland Rail, a project begun under the last Labor government and which after 7 years of coalition government the final route of which is still yet to be finalised.
With Australia’s unemployment rate climbing we need real investment in infrastructure projects, not more overhyped announcements.