Federal budget includes $5.3bn in equity for western Sydney airport and $8.4bn for the inland rail project

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Turnbull government has established a $10bn national rail program, cementing the move towards urban and regional rail in a departure from Tony Abbott’s preference for road projects.



The government claimed it was putting $75bn into its 10-year infrastructure program, which would lift national productivity and drive economic growth.

It includes the $10bn push to improve connections between cities and regions. The treasurer, Scott Morrison, said projects that could be eligible include Adelink, Brisbane Metro, Tullamarine Rail link, the Brisbane Cross River Rail and the Western Sydney Airport Rail link. The business case for all projects would have to pass the guidelines.

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It also includes $5.3bn in equity for the western Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek and $8.4bn for the inland rail project.

Both the inland rail project and the western Sydney airport will be treated like the national broadband network under Labor – that is, off budget because the government expects a return.

The equity will be ploughed into the WSA company and the only on budget cost for the western Sydney airport project is $8.7m over 10 years for the oversight of that company.

The WSACo will be a government-owned company to build the airport by 2026 with tenders for works issued before the end of 2017.

For the inland rail project, the government will put $8.4bn in equity over seven years into the ARTC. The Coalition promised in August 2013 that construction would start in 2016 but it has yet to commence.

The only existing funding for the inland rail project was $300m promised under the previous Labor government in 2011.

The other potentially big infrastructure project is a promise for a commonwealth takeover of the Snowy Hydro.

The hydroelectricity scheme is now ownedby the commonwealth (13%), New South Wales (58%) and Victorian (29%) governments. This year Malcolm Turnbull promised a feasibility study to look at the capacity to extend the scheme.

But Morrison said the commonwealth would only consider the Snowy Hydro takeover if the states put the money back into “priority infrastructure projects”, if the existing water licensing arrangements continued and that the scheme remained in public hands.

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Victoria will get $500m for regional rail on the North-East, Gippsland and Geelong lines and a study for the Shepparton line. There is a further $20m for the Murray Basin Rail and $30m for a business case for the Melbourne Airport Rail link.

The federal government is also holding out the prospect of an extra $460m for Victorian infrastructure subject to negotiations, following the federal-state impasse over the East West Link.

The Turnbull government has also backed down over WA infrastructure, allowing $1.6bn to be put towards road and rail infrastructure, including $792m for the contentious Metronet project, which the WA Labor opposition supported over the Perth Freight Link at the last state election. The federal government had insisted it would not fund the Metronet but, since Labor’s thumping win, foreshadowed the new spending in the last days before the budget.