The Government wrote fifty press releases but zero loans during the four-year life of Scott Morrison’s failed $2 billion water loan facility.
The Morrison Government has abolished the failed National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility (NWILF), quietly announcing the end of the program in the Budget four years after creating it.
In one of the most egregious examples of the Morrison Government being all about the photo op and not about the follow up, the Government has not managed to get the four-year-old program off the ground.
Between July 2019 and 30 September 2020 alone, Scott Morrison wasted $615,986 of public money on running the failed announcement-generating scheme, for no outcome.
In his 2016 Budget speech then Treasurer Scott Morrison claimed the NWILF would “catalyse new investment in dams and pipelines across Australia.”
It did not.
Bruce King, Chief Executive Officer of the Regional Investment Corporation, which manages the NWILF, has confirmed that the program is yet to receive any water loan applications.
Federal Member for Blair, Shayne Neumann, said Australian farmers and communities desperately struggling through one of the worst droughts on record have been seriously let down by the Morrison Government.
“This Government shamefully held out false hope, with 50 press releases since 2016, for a fund that never delivered a single dollar to water infrastructure in four years,” Mr Neumann said.
“In addition, the Government has not delivered on its claims before getting elected seven years ago, that it would build 100 dams.
“In fact, it has not built one dam in that time.”
In a speech to Parliament on 28 October 2020, Mr Neumann outlined how the scrapping of the NWILF should not be surprising given that this Government’s $5 billion Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) has spent just $2 million to one project in North Queensland.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, Queenslanders feel understandably let down by the Government.
“They pulled back JobKeeper too early and rather than invest in job-creating projects, they have done nothing to support north Queensland.
“In its four years the Morrison Government’s NWILF has funded no dams, created no jobs and made no water available.
“Even though this Government has racked up one trillion dollars of debt they are still managing to leave people behind.
“And when it comes to water they haven’t delivered, and they have no plan for the future.”
