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AAP
AAP
Politics
Daniel McCulloch

Sports rorts on an industrial scale: Labor

Paul Fletcher says the commuter car park program had the approval of voters at the 2019 election. (AAP)

Australia's urban infrastructure minister has been forced to defend a commuter car park program described as "sports rorts on steroids".

A scathing auditor-general's report has found the coalition scheme was not effective or merit-based.

Not one of the 47 commuter car park sites promised by the coalition at the 2019 election was selected by the infrastructure department.

At least $660 million was allocated to hand-picked projects in Liberal-held or marginal seats.

Labor frontbencher Andrew Giles is shocked by the auditor's findings.

"We knew this was a project that had been rorted but the report exposes a scale that is quite shocking," he told ABC radio.

"This really is sports rorts on an industrial scale.

"What we see here is evidence of a government desperate to buy votes before an election, heedless of the consequences of that."

Senior ministers selected projects based on consultations with coalition MPs and candidates.

Almost two-thirds of the projects were located in Melbourne - two and a half times the number in Sydney - despite Sydney being identified as having most of the nation's congested roads.

More than three-quarters of the commuter car park sites were in coalition-held seats.

Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher has defended the politically skewed pre-election program.

"The process we went through was that ministers, elected officials, made decisions about the delivery of infrastructure projects," Mr Fletcher said.

"The great majority of these projects we took to the 2019 election, and so we came to government with the authority of an election."

Only two of the car parks have been built.

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