Currently federal highways are funded using an 80:20 split between federal and state governments. State governments always play games with their 20% share of the funding. Because of this delays always occur on every major federal highway project in recent memory including the Toowoomba bypass, the long-promised Bruce highway upgrades, and numerous Pacific and Gateway motorway projects.
I think the Federal government should just fund 100% of the sovereign infrastructure. The Federal government should also start an engineering corp in the military to build and maintain this infrastructure. This will bypass funding disagreements with the State governments as well as avoid having to use Foreign Multinational building contractors who are ripping Australians off. These contractors has a cosy arrangement with the CFMMEU whereby they both rip off the taxpayer and slow down the speed at which infrastructure is built.
In the United States, the USA Army Corps of engineers were utilised in the building boom of the 1930s and continued to be directly involved in the construction of civil infrastructure such as dams, electricity and roads around the country throughout the 20th century. Today China’s state-owned companies currently are used to construct highways and key infrastructure overseas as a result of US withdrawal from such projects. This infrastructure is being used by China to expand their international influence across the globe.
It’s time the Australian military was utilised to build federal infrastructure and highways, increasing employment, infrastructure outcomes and in time our influence in our region. Do you agree?
