Scott Morrison has promised to bring forward a further $1.5bn in infrastructure spending and fast track 15 priority projects in a bid to hustle the Australian economy out of the Covid-19 contraction.
In a speech to the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (Ceda) on Monday, the prime minister will also provide an update on the deregulation agenda of his jobs package, which he says will be “a focus” for the recovery.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, will use his speech to Ceda to accuse the government of “waste and mismanagement” in its handling of the robodebt and jobkeeper programs, including paying some workers “more money … than they were before the pandemic while other workers are missing out altogether”.
Albanese proposes a new national skills body and calls for “intelligent budgets and a progressive tax system that incentivises investment in capital and people”.
With the bulk of the government’s $134bn of economic supports set to expire in September, Morrison is under pressure to explain what industry assistance will be provided if jobkeeper is withdrawn and to create jobs for those on the jobseeker unemployment benefit.
Since November, the government has already brought forward $7.8bn in infrastructure spending, with a further $1.5bn to be announced on Monday consisting of $500m for road safety and $1bn for other shovel-ready projects.
In excerpts of the speech, seen by Guardian Australia, Morrison announces the commonwealth, states and territories will set up “joint assessment teams” to fast-track approval for 15 major projects worth more than $72bn in public and private investment.
Morrison sets a target to halve commonwealth assessment and approval times, from an average of 3.5 years to 21 months.
The priority list includes the Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail line, the Marinus Link between Tasmania and Victoria, the Olympic Dam extension in South Australia, emergency town water projects in New South Wales; and road, rail and iron ore projects in Western Australia.
In February Infrastructure Australia listed town and city water security projects and connectivity of the east coast electricity market, including the Marinus Link, as high priority initiatives and the inland rail as a priority.
“These are immediate actions we are taking today, but working within existing systems will only take us so far,” Morrison says.
“All levels of government, business and the community must rethink how these systems can better contribute to our recovery from the pandemic.
“We need to bring the same common sense and cooperation we showed fighting Covid-19 to unlocking infrastructure investment in the recovery.”
Morrison praises states that “have already cut approval times” – citing the approval of Snowy 2.0 in New South Wales within two years – but says he has “asked them all to lift their ambition further, and work with us through the national cabinet to make deregulation a focus of Australia’s economic recovery”.
In May Guardian Australia revealed the manufacturing taskforce advising the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission had recommended Australian taxpayers underwrite a massive expansion of the domestic gas industry, which has lead to accusations the body is too focused on gas as the main path out of recession.
In his speech, seen by Guardian Australia, Albanese presents “policy confusion” on energy policy as one of a number of handbrakes on Australia’s growth, calling for certainty and clean, cheap energy.
Albanese notes science agency CSIRO has found that “net zero emissions by 2050 would result in higher wages, higher growth and lower energy costs”.
Albanese says Labor wants the tax system to give “businesses incentives to invest in themselves – both in their equipment and in their workers”.
Albanese argues the vocational education sector has been “severely run down and mismanaged by the Morrison government”, citing $3bn in funding cuts and a reduction in apprentice numbers by 140,000.
“We need a [vocational education and training] system that not only trains people for current needs, but that provides workers with transferable skills, and the capacity to upgrade them.
“This is of such importance I announced Labor’s plans for Jobs and Skills Australia, a body that will be a genuine partnership across all sectors.”
Albanese defends Labor’s record in opposition, setting out that it had “scrutinised the government’s actions and put forward constructive ideas” but ultimately passed its emergency fiscal measures.
Albanese accuses the government of facilitating a “raid on superannuation” that is a “time bomb in the making” and announces that a future Labor government will “move quickly to develop and implement a positive ageing strategy”, if elected.
“It will outline a plan to help Australians in their final years of paid work, to build the nest egg that will let them retire when and how they want.”
Albanese suggests Labor would help “rebuild our capacity to have constructive national conversations” which he says has “been corroded by culture wars — but it is not beyond repair”.
“We owe Australians the vision and courage to imagine and create a better future. A future underpinned by the togetherness that got us through the coronavirus.”
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