Angst as upgrade to McKoy Street-Hume Freeway intersection abandoned by federal government.

In an added blow to our region, funding for the Rutherglen heavy vehicle bypass route was also axed as Infrastructure Minister Catherine King and the federal government try to rein in a $33 billion budget blowout.

Ms King said the cuts represented projects that were not realistically going to be delivered with the available funding, had made little to no progress over a significant amount of time, or did not align with national priorities.

That begs the question, who is to blame for these projects making little progress?

It's hard to argue that an upgrade of the McKoy Street-Hume Freeway intersection doesn't align with national priorities given its status as the major highway between Melbourne and Sydney.

Indi MP Helen Haines gave the federal and state governments both barrels for the "deeply disappointing" announcement on Thursday.

"This is a failure of the former Morrison government, the Victorian Labor government and now of the federal Labor government," Dr Haines said of the McKoy Street news.

"Former prime minister Scott Morrison made this promise in a fly-in, fly-out campaign stop in 2019, but there was no follow through in the three years of his government.

"It is a disgrace that we have been left in this position."

Wodonga-based Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, the opposition infrastructure spokeswoman, said the government had "duck-shoved" responsibility to the states and attempted to wipe its hands of blame for delayed or cut projects.

Senator McKenzie is right, although a large chunk of the lack of progress on McKoy St, announced by Mr Morrison, occurred on the Coalition's watch.

We deserve better than empty promises made by politicians more focused on winning another term in government than addressing the long-term needs of our region.