Federal funding for road and rail projects is still going to marginal seats more than safe seats, a report from the independent Grattan Institute has found, amid calls to reform funding legislation.
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There are also concerns about federal funding going to minor projects, like "roundabouts, overpasses, and car parks" instead of "projects of national significance".
The report noted safe seats in Victoria received less funding for projects that marginal seats in New South Wales or Queensland, and at the last election, only one of the Coalition's 71 transport promises valued at $100 million or more had a business case approved by Infrastructure Australia, while for Labor, it was two projects of 61.
According to the report, "the average marginal urban seat received $83 million from the federal Urban Congestion Fund, whereas the average safe Coalition seat received $64 million and the average safe Labor seat $34 million".
That said, money for road safety upgrades, and in particular the Roads to Recovery and Black Spot programs, was more bipartisan, and focused more on regional and rural areas.
When announcing big projects, over $100 million, the federal government should also release an assessment from Infrastructure Australia, including its business case, report author Marion Terrill said in a media release, to improve transparency, while focusing less on smaller projects.
"Politicians who insist on pork-barrelling are wasting taxpayers' money, and the biggest losers are people who live in safe seats or states with few marginal electorates," they write.
"Politicians are not supposed to spend public money to promote their private interest, including their private political advantage. Avoiding such conflicts of interest would be more straightforward if the federal government stuck to its national role, and did its due diligence before spending public money."
City of Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney, also chair of Regional Capitals Australia, said growing cities need support "regardless of politics", while calling for a national population strategy.
"All councils want to see a logical, needs-based approach," he said.
"In Ballarat's case, we're a rapidly growing city adding 2500 to 3000 residents a year, and we need the infrastructure to reflect that.
"It's hard to make many of these decisions without a clear population policy that determines the level of international immigration and internal migration out of capitals and into regional areas, and having that population framework backed up with a solid infrastructure strategy is the way to go."
Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton said any infrastructure funding needed to be focused on the long term.
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"It needs to be strategic aligned with population settlement and growth, and typically the election cycle is a short-term process - planning and major investment in infrastructure must be long-term focus," he said.
"One of the great opportunities of fast regional rail is about long-term generational change to the way we live and move around our state, and with a short-term focus on elections, those outcomes are less likely."
The full report and analysis is available online.
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