Liberals accuse Albanese government of ‘playing favourites’ in infrastructure spending | Australian politics

Federal and state Liberal politicians have accused the Albanese government of “playing favourites” with infrastructure spending, complaining about the allocation of funding between states and the unpicking of controversial announcements by the former Morrison government.

The federal Labor government announced $9.6bn in infrastructure commitments on Sunday for next week’s budget, formalising numerous election promises and pledging to reform how money is spent on large projects.

But the New South Wales infrastructure minister, Rob Stokes, and the transport minister, David Elliott, claimed the federal government “shortchanged” their state, pointing out that other jurisdictions were receiving far more cash.

“It’s time for the federal government to stop playing favourites when it comes to allocating taxpayers’ money and prioritise the spending where it’s needed most,” Elliott said.

Sunday’s announcement included confirmation of $2.2bn for Melbourne’s suburban rail loop, $1.5bn for Darwin’s Middle Arm precinct, $300m for the western Sydney roads package and $586m to upgrade Brisbane’s Bruce Highway.

But broken down by state, announcement allocated $1bn to NSW, $2.57bn to Victoria, $685m to Tasmania, $1.47bn to Queensland, $2.5bn to the Northern Territory, $670m to Western Australia and $660m to South Australia.

The federal infrastructure minister, Catherine King, also once again flagged cuts to discretionary grants programs committed by the former government.

The shadow infrastructure minister, Bridget McKenzie, criticised the decision to continue funding Melbourne’s suburban rail loop, a key election promise of the premier, Daniel Andrews, ahead of Victoria’s state election.

The state’s auditor general last month criticised the project, saying the Department of Transport and the Suburban Rail Loop Authority had not provided the full business case for the project and did not “demonstrate the economic rationale for the entire project”.

“This budget is shaping up as a politicised budget to support Dan Andrews’ re-election campaign,” McKenzie claimed in a statement.

At a press conference in Melbourne, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called the suburban rail loop an “exciting” and “nation-building” project. He shrugged off concerns from critics of the program and noted his government was following through on election commitments.

“I am absolutely committed to the suburban rail loop,” Albanese said.

Speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program, King said the Albanese government had confidence in the “substantial” business case the Victorian government had presented on the rail project, but admitted her Infrastructure Australia advisory body had not undertaken a review of the business case.

“This is for the early works of this project. We haven’t made any further commitments. We’ll talk to the Victorians around that as we go forward,” King said.

Western Australian Liberal senator Michaelia Cash criticised the government for not funding a freight link in Perth that had been backed by the former Coalition government.

“We are getting less funding than Tasmania, only slightly more than South Australia and much less than all the other states and the Northern Territory,” Cash said of her state.

Stokes pointed out that the federal government’s Sunday announcement dedicated twice as much funding to Victoria and the NT as his state.

“That means $10,729 has been allocated for every Northern Territory citizen, while a mere $122 has been committed for every New South Wales citizen,” he said.

Posting a screenshot of the Insiders interview with King, independent senator David Pocock complained his Australian Capital Territory had also been “dudded”.

Asked why NSW, the most populous state, got significantly less than Victoria, King said Labor in opposition had made spending decisions based on what projects were pitched to it and that the NSW government hadn’t made enough advances for funding.

However, Elliott said later in the day that the NSW government had given the federal government “a long list of infrastructure projects that desperately need funding”.

King also told Insiders the government would scrap “a large proportion” of the $2bn Regional Accelerator program announced in the Morrison government’s May budget, which proposed grants for manufacturing, critical minerals, apprenticeships and supply chain programs in regional areas.

King called that program “strange” but said the federal government would maintain some elements around training and education funding. She also said decisions were still being made over whether to maintain the latest round of the Building Better Regions fund.

McKenzie called for more information on the future of regional programs.