Infrastructure and Transport Minister Catherine King announced at the Australian Financial Review Infrastructure Summit on Tuesday the federal government will only fund road projects across the country if states are willing to split the costs 50-50.
The long-standing convention about regional and rural roads across the country has been the federal government pays for around 80 per cent of the funding, while states pay for 20 per cent.
“We’re not just the bank, I think that’s important to understand,” Ms King told the summit.
“We are co-investors in infrastructure and that partnership is important to us.
“The incentives for managing cost escalations have not always been there and our view, very simply, is that it’s important that we get more investment into those regional and rural roads but that we share the risk.”
(SKY NEWS)
