Australia Investing $17.9 Billion Into Infrastructure in Next Federal Budget

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg speaks during a press conference in Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on June 3, 2021. Sam Mooy/Getty Images

The Australian federal government announced a record $17.9 billion (US$13.4 billion) in infrastructure funding for new and existing projects across every jurisdiction in the 2022-23 federal budget.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said infrastructure is a key pillar of the economic growth plan and get more Australians into work.

“With the unemployment rate already at an equal 48-year low, the measures in this budget will create an additional 40,000 jobs across Australia, building on our world-leading economic recovery,” he said.

Major new commitments that are receiving funding include $1.6 billion (US$1.2 billion) for the Brisbane to Sunshine Coast rail extension, $1.2 billion for Beveridge Interstate Freight Terminal in Victoria, $1.1 billion for the Brisbane to Gold Coast rail upgrade, and $1 billion (US$750 million) for the Sydney to Newcastle rail upgrade.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the investment would help keep Australians moving and also support tens of thousands of local jobs, both directly and indirectly, across the economy.

“A strong economy means a stronger future,” Morrison said. “Continuing to provide record future funding for road and rail projects is a key part of our economic plan for the long term to keep our economy strong.”

Frydenberg said the budget, to be delivered on Tuesday evening, would demonstrate that growth was higher, unemployment was lower, and wages were strengthening.

“Tonight’s budget delivers for Australian families, for seniors, for small businesses, with cost‑of‑living relief now in a temporary, targeted, and responsible way,” he told reporters.

Fuel prices are listed on a fuel price board at a petrol station in Melbourne, Australia, on March 14, 2022. AAP Image/Diego Fedele

The treasurer said the budget would bank on the dividend of a stronger economy to afford the funding, despite the country being almost a trillion dollars in debt.

“Deficits will be lower, and debt as a share of the economy will peak earlier and lower than was previously forecast,” he said.

The budget will show that this year, Australians can expect the unemployment rate to drop below four percent, where it is currently sitting.

“This is a remarkable achievement that belongs to 26 million Australians,” Frydenberg said. “We now have an unemployment rate which is very, very low, and we are banking that dividend.”

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said despite the record low unemployment forecasts; it would not change the reality that the real wages for working families were going backwards.

“We don’t have anywhere near enough to show for this trillion dollars in debt,” he told ABC radio. “This government is temperamentally incapable of seeing beyond the election, so there won’t be a plan for a better future.”

Chalmers said if Labor won the next election, the debt would be addressed “in time,” but that it was currently “not the time to flick the switch to austerity.”

The Liberal Coalition abandoned its general policy of fiscal conservatism in favour of heavy government intervention from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Fiscal and monetary stimulus has its limits and is not a substitute for self-sustaining growth,” economist Robert Carling said. “Right now, there is little fiscal discipline insight.”