A major political storm has erupted in Australia after Prime Minister John Howard conceded that billions of dollars of road funding were illegally channeled into other programs.
His admission that his deputy prime minister and transport minister Mr John Anderson was to blame came as two states prepare for elections in which the vexed issues of petrol taxes and road funding have already bitten deeply into coalition support.
Mr Howard’s refusal to reduce the government's share of tax revenue which rises as a fixed percentage of the rising cost of petrol had already become a key federal issue in the run up to a general election due late this year.
Western Australia, held by the coalition Liberal and National parties, goes to the polls on Saturday, and Queensland, held by Labor, the following Saturday.
Mr Howard, who had refused for months to freeze the fuel tax on the grounds the government was spending increased revenue on roads, recently announced plans for a Aus$1.6bn (£0.75bn) four-year road construction program.
But an Auditor General's report published yesterday, fuelled the row by revealing that the government had already siphoned off almost double that - 2.9 billion dollars (£1.35bn) - which had been allocated for road funding over six years.
It had spent only 3.1 cents a litre of fuel excise on roads compared to the 4.95 cents a litre set out in law, the report said.
Local government authorities, labour unions, farmers and road haulage organisations expressed outrage over the admission, while the motoring lobby accused the government of cheating the electorate.
The prime minister said Mr Anderson had erred in failing to have tabled in the parliament a declaration on how much the government intended to spend on roads.
"There's no suggestion that the transport minister has been deliberately dishonest," he said, adding that the money had been spent on "health, housing and defence, among other services of government."
But one of Howard's own backbenchers, National Party MP Kay Hulls, said people could feel nothing else but "duped."
AFP