Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a $1.5 billion infrastructure boost, in an effort to raise employment rates and recover from COVID-19’s impact on Australia’s economy.
Fast tracking 15 major infrastructure projects, the Prime Minister says that this boost will lift the economic growth rate.
He says that it will take an estimated two years to get back to the level Australia stood at prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that this boost will lift that economic growth rate over for the next five years.
Australia will need to be 1 percentage point above trend rates to beat the GDP economic forecasts in 2025.
“We are looking at a record deficit, this year and the next,” Mr Morrison says.
A series of major projects have received priority status and have fast tracked completion dates.
These projects include Inland Rail from Melbourne to Brisbane, the expansion of Olympic Dam in South Australia, underwater power cable in Tasmania, emergency town water projects in NSW, road rail projects in WA, Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport, and a series of other developments.
Worth more than $72 billion, these projects are expected to create 66,000 jobs.
Small priority projects will also be included in this economic boost.
The JobMaker plan which is made of government and business groups who will be mapping out the coronavirus recovery period in the industral sector.
The projects that have been fast-tracked will be reviewed by the JobMaker team who will also be in charge of reviewing awards, wages, conditions and conduct during a project.
Project approval times will be also be cut by another 25% to bring them to an average of 30 days for approval.
Further announcements on these projects, and the potential of additional funding will be announced in the coming days.
More to come.
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