Labor frontbencher Jim Chalmers has rubbished claims his party can’t handle infrastructure spending, in a spirited on-air clash.
The opposition treasury spokesman was speaking to Nine ahead of Tuesday’s budget that is expected to include close to $18bn in infrastructure spending.
“These guys make these big announcements before every election before every budget. They often don't actually build anything,” Mr Chalmers claimed.
“So let’s see what they actually deliver.”
But deputy editor Anna Caldwell pointed out the opposition didn’t have the “best track record”, causing him to fire back.
“What are you talking about?” he hit back before adding, “What federal projects haven’t we delivered?”
Caldwell responded: “Well, if we go back 10 years, there would be you know, looking into the Cross River Rail. How long did that take? Finally, we’re talking about that now when you’re talking about that 10 years ago.”
Mr Chalmers laughed it off: “I’m sorry, with respect, that’s complete rubbish.”
The bust-up led to host Karl Stefanovic accusing the Labor frontbencher of making “Anna very angry this morning”.
“I didn’t mean to,” Mr Chalmers responded sheepishly.
He also confirmed Labor would not stand in the way of a cut to the fuel excise or the government’s extension to the first homebuyer scheme – which Mr Chalmers claimed the Coalition had copied from him.
“We've said pretty much across the board, Karl, that if there’s responsible cost-of-living relief for families, then we’ll be up for that,” Mr Chalmers said.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to wage war on Ukraine was hurting Australians’ hip pockets.
“The cost of living of course is central. People are concerned about it. You can’t cure everything, you assist, you can mitigate, but you can’t fix,” he told Seven’s Sunrise.
“The issues such as food prices are affected by Ukraine, energy prices are affected by Ukraine.
“A lot of these do to back to Mr Putin and the outrageous murdering process that he’s going through.”
Meanwhile, Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher has denied an $18bn infrastructure mega spend was politically motivated.
“Well I make the point for example that if you look at the intermodal terminals in Beveridge and Truganina as it happens both of them fall into Labor electorates,” said Mr Fletcher.
“We have not considered electoral considerations – what we have looked at is the long-term freight needs of Melbourne and Australia in making that investment.”
Outgoing Liberal MP John Alexander said responsibility for nation-building projects should be taken out of politicians’ hands, as they have become “addicted” to using infrastructure spending to win votes.
“They want to do small infrastructure projects that they can start in their term, finish in their term and say ‘look what we did’ as a way of buying votes,” he told the Sydxjmtzywney Morning Herald.
