16 November 2023
Under the cover of a Federal infrastructure review, the Albanese Government has pulled out from under the rug Coalition funding arrangements that saw Tasmania win big on Commonwealth money.
While cutting $16 million to the Old Surrey Road and Massy-Greene Drive project near Burnie, a project that local Labor Senator Anne Urquhart held absolutely no sway over, the Albanese Government’s new 50/50 Commonwealth and State arrangement will see infrastructure projects in the pipeline curtailed and our civil construction workforce heavily impacted.
This new arrangement is an abject failure by Assistant Infrastructure Minister Carol Brown to advocate for our state and is further proof that the Albanese Government doesn’t recognise regional Tasmanian priorities.
Instead, they would rather send billions of taxpayer dollars to their Labor mates in Victoria for lemons of projects like Suburban Rail Loop.
Federal infrastructure investment is critical for smaller states like Tasmania to maintain our roads, rail and bridges and the ditching successful 80/20 default arrangement under the Coalition will send the quality of our roads backwards.
We will see more potholes and more cracks on our roads and less money for future, potentially transformative infrastructure projects.
Federal Labor has failed Tasmania.