The Greens have received Parliamentary Library analysis showing that the Labor government has cut public transport spending by almost 4 times more than road spending in response to the Independent Strategic Review of the Infrastructure Investment Pipeline.
The research shows funding for freight rail and public transport had a net cut of $512M, and roads only cut by $139M.
This is despite the fact that overall funding greatly favours roads. The Labor government’s post-review infrastructure budget is still spending 3.6 times more on roads than on public transport – $97 billion to $27 billion respectively.
In May this year the Climate Council released the ‘Shifting Gear’ report which showed that, for Australia to meet its international obligations for carbon emission reduction, it would need to more than triple the share of trips taken by public transport by 2030 from its current 14% to 49% of daily commutes.
This would require transport budgets at all levels of government to be adjusted so 50% of funding goes to public transport and only 30% on roads. Labor’s post-review infrastructure budget commits approximately 23% for public transport and 76% for roads.
Meanwhile, the recommendations of the Independent Strategic Review do not mention public transport even once, while there are multiple references to the need for more road funding.
As stated by Elizabeth Watson-Brown MP, Greens spokesperson for Transport, Infrastructure and Sustainable Cities:
“Despite congested roads, growing transport emissions and the spiking cost of petrol, the Labor government has failed to even consider the only real alternative: investment in public transport.
“The federal government is spending nearly 4 times more on roads than it is on public transport.
“The Independent Strategic Review was a golden opportunity to reprioritise investment to significantly boost public transport capacity across the country, but instead we actually saw more cuts to public transport than we did to road funding. And there’s not a word about public transport in their recommendations.
“Endless spending on roads will only mean more people driving, which leads to more traffic in the medium term. The only solution to our traffic woes is a huge investment in public transport, and the federal government shouldn’t shirk its responsibility for that.”
