Who
remembers the Budget slogan?
Every
budget is sold with a particular message and this year’s State budget in May
2019 was no exception.
“Maintaining
the momentum…. investing for growth” was the chosen catch cry.
The
massive infrastructure spend of $2.8 billion over four years was set to lay the
foundations for the future.
With
the year almost over, the infrastructure spend for the full year 2018/19 was
expected to be $699 million, The preliminary outcomes report for the completed
year released last week showed spending was only $582 million, $117 million
less than expected a month earlier.
The
pattern of recent governments is to consistently spend less on infrastructure
than budgeted, on average roughly $100 million each year. In that sense the
momentum has been maintained.
