Federal govt cuts funding for 50 infrastructure projects

The news: The federal government will cut financial support for 50 infrastructure projects across the country as it battles to reign-in spending in the face of a $33 billion budget blowout. Fast rail projects linking Geelong and Newcastle to their capital counterparts will be among projects having their Commonwealth funding axed. The cuts were aimed at projects the could not be realistically delivered under current funding arrangements or had progressed to slowly to date, infrastructure minister Catherine King said.

The numbers: Federal funding for roughly 400 projects will remain intact, along with the government's 10-year $120 billion infrastructure pipeline allocation. The Commonwealth would add additional funding to 11 projects, including South Australia’s North-South Corridor ($2.7 billion), Queensland’s Logan-Gold Coast Faster Rail ($1.75 billion) and Western Australia’s Metronet ($1 billion).

The context: Earlier this week an independent audit found overruns of $33 billion in the federal infrastructure budget, moving the government to shift its state infrastructure contribution ratio from 80-20 to 50-50 and restrict its funding to projects deemed "nationally significant".

What they said: "[The infrastructure review] painted a sad and frankly sorry picture of the health of our infrastructure investment pipeline," King told reporters on Thursday. "From now on, the Australian government's investment infrastructure will focus on productivity, sustainability and liveability."