Canberra raps Brumby over funding - The Age

Katharine Murphy, Canberra, and Marc Moncrief

PREMIER John Brumby and Treasurer John Lenders have received a swift rebuke for their lobbying over Canberra's dwindling infrastructure dollars, with the federal minister declaring their comments irrelevant.

Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese has dismissed as a "speculative bid" recent suggestions from Victoria that the state is expecting $10 billion worth of federal funds for transport upgrades.

"Public comments by state and territory leaders will have absolutely no impact on the outcome," Mr Albanese told The Age in an interview yesterday.

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Mr Albanese's warning to Victoria follows a three-day meeting in Sydney this week where federal policy advisers and a team of economic consultants, lead by Infrastructure Australia chairman Sir Rod Eddington, have been working to finalise the national priority list. Sources involved in the process say several governments have been asked to supply officials with better quality information about their wish-lists, and revise some of their proposals.

Infrastructure Australia will meet again early next week. Mr Albanese is yet to be briefed on the emerging priorities.

Sir Rod was "taking additional responsibility", Mr Albanese said, for driving the accelerated timetable set by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
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"We maintain our commitment to investing in the productive side of the economy," he said. "We will monitor these issues but we maintain our strong commitment to our infrastructure program."

Read the whole article at TheAge.com.au

State Government calls for federal transport cash

THE State Government wants at least $5 billion of federal funding for major transport projects.

Premier John Brumby said yesterday a cut of the $20 billion Building Australia Fund would have a big impact on transport project decisions later this year.

"I hope going forward with the $20 billion put aside by the Rudd Government, we can get our hands, obviously, on the maximum possible share of that," he said.

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Have your say below: What improvements do you think are needed?

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"If we got, for example, five or six billion dollars out of that, that would make a huge difference."

It comes as Monash University's chair of public transport, Prof Graham Currie, said $10 billion of federal funding was needed to fix public transport in state capitals.

He said Australia was one of only a few Western nations in which national government had no role providing public transport.

Lobby group the Tourism and Transport Forum and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union have said federal funding is vital for the State Government to implement recommendations contained in Sir Rod Eddington's transport report, East-West Needs Assessment.

The RACV's public policy general manager, Brian Negus, agreed, saying the recommendations were beyond the state budget.

Sir Rod recommended an $8. billion Caulfield-Footscray rail tunnel and a $9 billion road tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway with the Tullamarine Freeway as the key projects requiring investment.

Mr Negus said other schemes needed to be in the state plan, such as the continuation of the metropolitan ring road. "I don't know what the Premier is thinking of with $5 billion but I'd put forward the rail tunnel and the Greensborough link as being logical projects for the Federal Government to commit to," he said.

At a national forum in Melbourne yesterday, industry and academic experts called for $10 billion in federal funding for public transport. They want $5 billion spent on infrastructure upgrades, $2.2 billion for tram and train stock and $600 million for 2000 buses.

They also called for commuters to pay GST on public transport fares, with the money put towards a sustainable transport fund.

Fuel excise on public transport, a fringe benefit tax levy on company cars and income from emissions trading offsets could also go to the fund.

Read the orig article - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23991459-2862,00.html If you go there, you can also add to the comments section.

Email Lindsay Tanner. He's both the Minister of Finance, and the Federal Member for Melbourne. In a large way, he holds the purse-strings.

lindsay.tanner.MP@aph.gov.au