Future Fund head David Murray says the financial crisis means the Government will not have the money it wants to set up three new infrastructure funds.

The Government wants to create a $20 billion 'Building Australia' fund, an $11b education investment fund, and put $10b into a health and hospitals fund.

Some of the money was to come from this year's budget surplus and some from next year's.

But Mr Murray says the downturn means those plans will have to change.

"I don't know the timing but on a cyclical basis there's no way those sort of surpluses will be available to any Australian government," he said.

"The currency has fallen, commodity prices have fallen, the global economy is contracting quite noticeably.

"Asia is not decoupled from that. And so on that basis it will be far more difficult to manage the Budget than it has been."

Guarantee concerns

Mr Murray also says there is no need for the Federal Government to charge a fee for guaranteeing big bank deposits.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan announced last week that there would be a fee of about 1 per cent for deposits above $1 million to get the Government's backing for the next three years.

Mr Murray says the guarantee was needed, but the Government could have given more thought to the way it was done.

"In my view, this guarantee should be viewed as a public good because there was no bank insolvency problem," he said

"The taxpayer here is not coming to the rescue of any individual bank in difficulty. For that reason there is no argument for a fee at all on this guarantee.

"But what the Government must do is get out of the guarantee in that three-year period."

Mr Murray also suggested the Government should buy into the investment funds which have frozen withdrawals.

The Federal Government is currently talking to the investment industry about ways to unlock some of the money.

The funds have frozen withdrawals to stop people transferring their money to take advantage of the Government's guarantee on bank deposits.

Mr Murray says that is a problem.

"There is a market distortion caused by the guarantee," he said.

"What the Government and the banks should do, with the support of the Reserve Bank, is to get in and find a way of providing some liquidity into these funds by buying their securities at market prices. Not necessarily up to the value of the whole fund, but to provide some liquidity."