Drivers will get home faster in Adelaide and Perth thanks to new road projects Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten announced ahead of the upcoming federal election.
The Labor leader promised the bigger package, with $1.2 billion for the final stage of Adelaide's north-south road corridor.
"What we're going to make sure is, not only does the money get invested to help ease the commuter congestion experience, but what we also want to do is make sure that we employ locals when the contracts get allocated," Mr Shorten told reporters in Adelaide on Friday.
At least one in 10 workers on the project will be apprentices and there will be a priority on local procurement, he added.
But South Australian Treasurer Rob Lucas said the state was not ready to go ahead with the road because the previous government had not planned it.
"There is just no capacity, given the incompetence and negligence of the former Labor government, we're not in a position yet to be able to spend any money in the next 12 months," he told reporters.
Mr Shorten hit back at the Liberal state government.
"If you're not ready to deal with a major infrastructure challenge then maybe you need to look in the mirror as to what the problem is," he said.
The South Australian Freight Council said the final section of South Road would be the most complex and costly to complete and called on the coalition to match Labor's promise.
Mr Morrison was in Perth to announce $96 million worth of road and rail upgrades to revamp three bottleneck areas.
"This is about responding to the pressures of population growth across our cities all across the country," the prime minister told reporters.
The $96 million package will go towards upgrades at Hazelmere, Alkimos and Kewdale, the widening of the Kwinana and Mitchell Freeways as well as Perth's Smart Freeway, and the construction of a train station at Lakelands on the Mandurah Line.
Mr Morrison is mid-way through a four-day visit to Western Australia, as the coalition fights to hold onto four seats it can ill afford to lose at the federal election.
He is expected to spend the remainder of his time campaigning in at-risk Liberal-held seats - Pearce, Swan, Canning and Stirling - and also in Cowan, held by Labor's Anne Aly.
