The Coalition government has claimed credit for 20 road and rail projects worth more than $12 billion since the September election, despite those projects having been announced and funded by the former Labor government.
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Labor dismissed Treasurer Joe Hockey's claim the budget would contain more than $40 billion over six years for infrastructure on Monday, arguing up to $35 billion of that money had been allocated by the former government.
The government has made a series of announcements since September of infrastructure projects it would deliver, culminating in February when Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss introduced the omnibus Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill that mapped out the government's plan "to deliver the infrastructure Australia critically needs through our $35.5 billion Infrastructure Investment Program".
But that bill adopted billions of dollars worth of Labor projects including the $6.7 billion Bruce Highway in Queensland and the $405 million NorthConnex project in NSW, which had formerly been known as the F3 to M2 link. Other projects claimed by the Coalition include the $300 million Brisbane to Melbourne inland rail project and the $1.5 billion WestConnex project in Sydney, which had been known as the M4 and M5 road extension. Coalition projects such as the East West Link were added.
On Monday, Labor infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese took the government to task for re-announcing Labor projects while cutting money for public transport projects.
"In the case of a project, like NorthConnex, which used to be called the F3 to M2 link, you don’t create a new project by having a new name for an old project,'' Mr Albanese said.
The stoush over ownership of the infrastructure projects comes after Fairfax Media revealed the budget would contain about $10 billion in additional infrastructure spending to build on that $35.5 billion, including about $5 billion for a fund linked to Mr Hockey's ''asset recycling'' and another $5 billion to fast-track projects including the WestConnex in Sydney and the East West Link in Melbourne.
It also comes as the Australian Automobile Association on Monday wrote to every MP to protest the expected move to restore indexation of federal petrol excise, which will drive up prices at the pump by about 1¢ a year and raise about $399 million revenue in the first year.
Association chief executive Andrew McKellar said the decision was unjustified and that only a fraction of the $15 billion raised annually by the levy at present was spent on roads.
Mr Hockey attempted to soften the blow of higher fuel prices on Sunday, signalling the additional revenue raised would be spent on road infrastructure.
