(Image: Tom Red/Private Media)

The Morrison government has rolled out the pork-barrels in its reelection strategy today, announcing what it claims is an $18 billion increase in infrastructure funding across dozens of projects around the country.

However, only a handful, worth around $3.3 billion, or less than one-fifth of the announced sum, are projects identified on Infrastructure Australia’s priority list, or previous versions of the list.

The billion-dollar upgrade to the Newcastle-Sydney rail line, the $1.1 billion Brisbane-Gold Coast rail upgrade and the $264 million Newell Highway upgrade in NSW are the biggest of the 11 announced projects that have made it on to IA’s list, along with a number of smaller projects, although none rank as an “investment-ready proposal”, according to IA’s criteria.

The package was unveiled early this morning after being carefully dropped to selected journalists yesterday in order to give it some clear air ahead of the budget, which is likely to contain an array of spending and tax measures designed to win back desperately needed voter support with the election to be called as early as the weekend.

Most of the funding announced for Victoria is targeted at intermodal freight road and rail projects — more than $3 billion — with only limited investment in commuter road or rail projects, whereas in Queensland the spending is almost entirely directed at Brisbane mass transit projects, along with a bizarre $22 million for “business case development” in relation to the 2032 Olympics — which seems a bit late given the city is already stuck with the games.

In NSW $1.3 billion is being targeted at the Sydney-Newcastle corridor and particularly the Wyong area. The two relevant seats there are Robertson, held by Liberal MP Lucy Wicks with just a 4.2% margin, and Dobell, which Labor holds by just 1.5%. Woy Woy will also receive extra funding from the government’s heavily rorted car park fund, along with increases in funds from the discredited program in other centres in NSW and Victoria, according to media reports.

The pork-barrelling continues the tradition of heavily politicised infrastructure allocation, with both major parties developing spending programs for political purposes unrelated to infrastructure priorities — exactly the opposite of IA’s recommendation about the benefits of greater transparency in infrastructure decisions.

It also comes at a point when the heavy construction industry is at capacity — something completely ignored in the federal government’s hyping of its announcements, including its claim that its investment would “support tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across Australia”. In fact the NSW government has just revealed it has decided to delay major metropolitan road projects due to soaring costs and skill shortages.

The lack of long-term planning around timing as well as poor business case development have been a significant factor in the now-routine blowouts in the cost of major infrastructure projects.

Liberal MP John Alexander, possessed of that spirit of honesty that only appears when politicians end their careers, called last week for infrastructure spending allocation to be taken out of the hands of politicians and handed to an independent body, the equivalent of a central bank for infrastructure.

This would provide the basis not just for better assessment of the merits of projects but would encourage an ongoing pipeline of projects rather than the lumpy process that currently applies, where governments bid against each other and themselves for scarce skills.

But it would deprive governments of both persuasions of pre-budget announcements designed to shore up their electoral prospects and maybe snatch desperately needed seats from their opponents.