GAVIN EVANS: Shovel-ready... after the politics and patch protection

Sun, 05 Jul 2020

When Infrastructure Reference Group chair Mark Binns kicked off the “shovel-ready” funding scheme in April, he warned that the group wasn’t interested in “time-wasters” and wouldn’t be funding “dream-schemes” or building “bridges to nowhere.” Nor would it be socialising the losses of already failing private initiatives. It would focus on keeping alive projects that were at risk of stalling, projects that could provide early benefits from jobs, and projects that could deliver long-term community payback, given the large cheques the Crown w...

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