A Fairfax Media analysis of the Abbott government's 2014 budget has calculated that, of the new projects announced and funded, just under three-quarters were in Coalition electorates.

Including the infrastructure projects which aren't new but which have received more funding under the incoming Coalition government, such as the Warrego Highway in Queensland and the Swan Valley Bypass in Western Australia, there was a total of 50 projects benefiting Coalition electorates.

In comparison, the majority of projects which lost federal funding in the 2013 election were in non-Liberal electorates, such as Melbourne Metro Rail in Victoria.

Monash University professor of transport Graham Currie said it was common for Liberal or right-wing leaning governments to be concerned about infrastructure in rural areas.

But while it was not uncommon for governments to use public money to prop up their own electorates, he said the government had to decide whether it was going to be political or professional.

"A real truth is that there's always a bit of a silver lining or a bit of gold plating around your own electorates [but] I'd like to point out that a three to one ratio is to a new level," he said.

Professor Currie said Australia's independent body for infrastructure decisions, Infrastructure Australia, was not being used by the current government to decide which projects to fund.

"The question is whether they want to be a professional government or they want to pork barrel, and whether we'll forge the idea of trying to be professional about how we manage resources or just do it on a political basis.

"I don't think that's how a country should be run."

The shadow Infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese has joined Mr Currie in accusing the federal government of using publicly funded projects to gain votes in marginal seats.

But a spokesperson for Infrastructure minister Warren Truss said the government had decided on infrastructure projects based on advice from the states and territories and the independent body Infrastructure Australia.

He said the Abbott government was making a record investment all over Australia to get on with building Australia's infrastructure, after what he said were six years of Labor neglect.

"The Australian government's $50 billion infrastructure investment includes funding for a range of major new motorway projects across a number of states and territories," he said.

"This significant investment in Australia's road, rail, port and airport networks increases the capacity for state and territory governments to fund urban rail public transport projects."

He said the projects which had been cut by the federal government, such as Melbourne Metro, had been picked up and funded by state Coalition governments.

Fairfax Media analysed the new projects announced in the 2014 Budget by which electorates they benefited, taking into account that a number of investments affected multiple electorates, such as the new Outback Way and the Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan.

Mr Albanese said in fairness a large number of projects which would have been funded by a re-elected Labor government also fell across Liberal electorates, such as national highways.

"Having said that, what they did do were the sorts of things that are nothing to do with national highways but are in Liberal seats - state roads or local roads, like the Great Ocean Road, were pork-barrelling basically," he said.

"And where they made the cuts are where they don't help any particular seat."

He said the government had made very political decisions about where the infrastructure funding should go, all against the advice of Infrastructure Australia.

"The whole purpose was to set up an independent advisory council to break that nexus between the political cycle and the investment cycle. And they haven't listened to Infrastructure Australia, in fact the opposite," he said.

"They've taken money from projects they recommended to projects that they haven't assessed."