Albanese vows clean out of Infrastructure fat cats
The Australian 1:00am April 8, 2019
Richard Ferguson
Top infrastructure advisers face the sack if Labor wins the next election, with opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese promising a “renewal” of the Infrastructure Australia board.
Infrastructure spending received a $100 billion boost in last week’s budget, but Mr Albanese said yesterday the board’s oversight of projects was too political.
“Well what we need to have is a renewal of the Infrastructure Australia board and we will be asking for that,” he told Sky News.
“And we will be consulting the opposition on who should be appointed to the board. It is quite extraordinary that this week a new appointment was made to the Infrastructure Australia board who immediately on day one — on day one — attacked the Labor Party.
“I have been consulting with the sector, with organisations like Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, with people across the board about giving us your ideas about who should be on the Infrastructure Australia board to make sure that it is above politics.”
Mr Albanese has been long critical of government appointments to the Infrastructure Australia board but he became particularly outspoken when a recent appointment, former South Australia infrastructure chief Rod Hook, made comments critical of SA Labor.
“I do think there’s a case that SA seems to have dropped the ball over the last few years in its dealing with the national entity,” Mr Hook said last week.
“We haven’t been very well represented. I’m pretty sure the current (Liberal) state government has progressed pretty well in getting funding commitments back on the radar over the last 12 months.”
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack defended the Infrastructure Australia board yesterday and said it had already been “renewed”.
“The federal government is confident that the Infrastructure Australia board has the appropriate skills and experience to fulfil its important role in advising the Australian government on infrastructure investment priorities,” Mr McCormack told The Australian.
“The Liberal and Nationals government has renewed Infrastructure Australia’s board already, by appointing three new highly skilled, competent and independent board members in 2019 to replace the three members whose terms had expired.”