Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has thrown his weight behind Brisbane's Cross River Rail project, but wants the private sector to invest in the long-touted crossing.
Mr Shorten says a $10 billion loan facility, using the government's balance sheet, could be used to incentivise the private sector - including the superannuation industry - to invest in the project and other important infrastructure.
"It makes sense for our super funds to not just invest in the stock market but to have alternative asset classes which also provide alternative sources of income," he said in Brisbane on Thursday.
"Some of our superannuation money is in fact going to infrastructure investment overseas when there's perfectly good projects to be built and funded in Australia."
Mr Shorten said the Cross-River Rail was Labor's "number one" infrastructure project for Brisbane and the party would be prepared to provide grant funding if it won the election.
He also slammed Tony Abbott for cutting $700 million Labor had allocated to the project after the Coalition was elected in 2013.
When asked how funding for the project would be split between the Queensland and federal governments, Mr Shorten said it would involve seeking private sector funding.
Queensland government modelling suggests rail demand will nearly triple by 2026 and the project will help remove 13,500 people a day from the city's roads by then.
The project was first proposed in late 2010 by the Bligh Labor government before being scuttled when the Newman government came to power in 2012, with former Premier Peter Beattie announcing the need for another river rail crossing as early as 2008.
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