82 percent of regional road funds shovelled into Labor seats
1st June, 2009
Rudd Labor plans to turn a respected regional road and rail building program into a giant slush fund for Labor MPs, with 82 percent of the cash going into Labor seats, it was revealed today.Labor’s attack on the Coalition backfired spectacularly today when the Minister for Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, tabled in Parliament a list of projects to be funded under a program the Government wants to call “Nation Building Program Off-Network Projects”.
The Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Transport Minister, Warren Truss, said the not previously seen list revealed that of $655.2 million in proposed road and rail funding under the program, $532.9 million is being shovelled into Labor-held seats.
“This just confirms the Coalition’s concerns about Labor’s plan to re-badge what was known as the Regional Strategic Roads program is nothing but the creation of a giant slush fund to look after Labor MPs,” Mr Truss said.
“Not only that, the Minister was unable to tell the Parliament what public process was used to determine the list and who was involved in the choice of projects.
“This is a major rort. Of 39 projects on the list, 30 are in Labor seats and appear to be nothing more than meeting election commitments of local Labor candidates. Many other projects were in electorates Labor was targeting.”
For the past 24 hours, Federal Labor has been trying to trick the public into believing Coalition attempts to amend legislation to return the Regional Strategic Road program and the Black Spots program to their original purposes will lead to every single road and rail project around Australia grinding to a halt. These amendments will not reduce road funding by a single dollar.
“Mr Albanese has become the Minister AGAINST Regional Development, not for Regional Development.
“Quite simply, the legislation in question does not appropriate money for programs. It involved the renaming of various road and rail programs, redirecting regional funds to the city to support failed State Labor governments and trying to hide the Coalition’s AusLink national transport plan under the catch-all Labor banner of ‘Nation Building’.
“Rudd Labor has now crossed the line from ‘spin’ to lying,” Mr Truss said.
