Vote 2016: Both leaders to promise cash for infrastructure

Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten will be promising infrastructure funding on Wednesday as their election campaigns enter a 10th day.

Bill Shorten Maclolm Turnbull campaing selfie

Selfie time: Malcolm Turnbull in Brisbane and Bill Shorten in Dawson (near Mackay). Source: AAP

Both federal leaders will be hoping promised cash for infrastructure will win over voters in neighbouring states as their campaigns continue to ride through a second week.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has jetted to Cairns where he's expected to pledge funding for a pair of projects in northern Queensland.

Mr Turnbull continues his northern tour after a day earlier in Darwin revealing a six-month pause on the so-called backpackers tax which would slug working tourists with a 32.5 per cent tax rate.
In Sydney, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will on Wednesday pledge $175 million to unclog road bottlenecks by duplicating the freight line between Port Botany and Mascot, and building a rail crossing loop at Warwick Farm.

The Labor leader believes it will take 300,000 trucks off Sydney roads a year.

Mr Shorten's pledge comes off the back of a half-a-billion funding promise for a new tram network in Adelaide.
He may be hoping to avoid more awkward lip-planting exercises like the one he experienced when Margo Carey demanded a "proper kiss" just before he departed the South Australian capital on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the focus in Canberra will turn to a different portfolio when Environment Minister Greg Hunt and opposition environment spokesman Mark Butler go head-to-head at the National Press Club.

The pair will likely battle it out over issues including climate change, the CSIRO and the recently damaged Great Barrier Reef.

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Source: AAP


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