There are plenty of roads in the north still waiting for an upgrade.
Four years ago, grand plans were announced to completely transform the economic fortunes of Australia’s north, thanks largely to a proposed massive infrastructure spend.
However, grey nomads travelling in the tropics today could be forgiven for failing to notice this spectacular metamorphosis taking shape.
The reason is that less than $40 million of the $5 billion fund has been spent so far, with just three projects having received funding from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF).
The scheme put aside $5 billion for concessional loans to help grow private infrastructure projects in the nation’s north.
Shadow Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Murray Watt, said that, at its current rate, it would take the government 500 years to distribute all the money.
“I think that’s a shocking indictment on this government’s ability to get infrastructure projects happening, get jobs created, and get the economy right across northern Australia, including far-north Queensland, going,” Senator Watt said. “You don’t create jobs with these projects until the Government actually releases the money, so the companies can get on and start building things and employing people.”
Under a new $600 million northern Australia roads package, the 2015 ‘Our North, Our Future: White Paper on Developing Northern Australia’ said funding would be considered for priority projects on the Great Northern Highway, Arnhem Highway, Flinders Highway, Barkly Highway, Hann Highway, the Outback Way and the Tanami Road.
NAIF said that while only $40 million had so far been actually released, it has approved more than $1.4 billion in loans to 14 infrastructure projects across northern Australia.
Advance Cairns CEO Nick Trompf said the incentive to apply for a NAIF concessional loan was not strong when interest rates were already low.
“It’s a relatively small amount of money to have landed in terms of actual impact,” he said. “I am aware of a number of applications from the Cairns region that have been looked at and then not pursued, principally because the benefits in a low interest rate environment are relatively marginal.”
Bigger all improvements. As usual all politics and funding is brisbane centred
How about upgrading kuranda range or making a new quicker access to cairns and more dams in FNQ