Michael McCormack lambasts infrastructure minister over budget cuts

Minister Catherine King announced funding for Roads to Recovery will double to $1 billion. The program offers funding to local governments for the maintenance of roads.

This comes in the wake of a major infrastructure review, that has cut $7 billion of federal funding from other state infrastructure projects.

Mr McCormack said Ms King was trying to pull a fast one on the Australian public, by promising funding that would arrive too late, or never.

"This is a carefully calibrated con job," he said.

"The money won't start to flow until at least the May budget next year ... it takes a while for that money to hit the road.

"They [councils] aren't going to receive an immediate hit of $500,000,000. It will be progressively increased, so it's out in the forward estimates."

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The government's decision to cut infrastructure projects is a response to organisations like the Reserve Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) saying Australia's infrastructure spend could be helping drive inflation.

Ms King said with inflation driving cost blowouts in other infrastructure projects, it was important to make sure every dollar was being spent effectively.

She said without significant changes, the government would not be able to commit to any new infrastructure spending for 10 years.

"I am sure we will hear a lot in coming weeks about infrastructure cuts. But the reality is that no funding will be cut from the $120 billion pipeline," she said.

"We're not cutting funding, we're cutting the lies and we're cutting the waste. We are seeking to manage the pipeline in a sustainable way, manage cost pressures and ensure we are not adding to inflation.

"We need more nation building projects like Western Sydney Airport, and fewer car parks and new roads that lead nowhere but marginal seats."

$110 million was cut from the construction of roads to Western Sydney Airport.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said while they had consulted with the federal government for over 200 days in their 90 day infrastructure review, he wasn't sure they'd been listening.

He demanded Ms King return the funding.

"We would like [the Commonwealth] to reverse these decisions and we would like them to ensure that NSW gets its fair share of infrastructure investment," he said.

"When [Ms King] said that the federal government wouldn't be yanking funding for projects that were already under construction, we expected, therefore, that money to be safe.

"The project is already in construction, it's already contracted and so it has to be delivered."

Mr McCormack, who is a former infrastructure minister, said Ms King had alienated state ministers by making a reckless decision on the back of limited evidence infrastructure spending was causing inflation.

"This is some kind of cruel hoax. They say it's a sweetener in the councils, but the proof is in the pudding," he said.

"Labor premiers from Jacinta Allan through to Chris Minns and Annastacia Palaszczuk were not holding back in their criticism of infrastructure minister Katherine King last week, and with good reason.

"They know the money has dried up. They probably didn't realise how good we [the Federal Coalition] were, but I tell you what, they do now."

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