“The fact that they have not done so is an example of stunning hypocrisy and also opens up Victorian taxpayers and the Victorian budget to massive risk.”
In 2014, newly elected Premier Daniel Andrews scrapped the Napthine Liberal government’s contract to build the East West Link, arguing it was a “dog of a project”, with traffic projections shrouded in secrecy and “missing” .
The Age revealed last year that the suburban Rail Loop was conceived in a secret process led by PwC consultants who left out most of the cabinet and the then head of the Department for Transport.
After a series of funding scandals under the former Morrison federal government, Albanese won May’s election promising to take politics out of big project funding and restore Infrastructure Australia’s role in guiding where they should go. cash flow
An Andrews Government spokeswoman said Victorians “voted for the suburban Rail Loop” at the 2018 election and “Infrastructure Australia has backed that” by listing suburban connectivity as a priority project.
“If we had waited for Infrastructure Australia to complete all its assessment processes before we started work on the projects, then the subway tunnel would be years away, 65 level crossings would not have been removed and we would not be building Melbourne Airport Rail “, he said. .
Andrews Government’s planned commuter rail loop. Credit:
The state government has said the cost-benefit ratio for the first two stages suggests that for every $1 spent on the project, between $1.10 and $1.70 would be returned.
A 400-page investment case published last year showed that just two sections of the line in the east and northeast could cost $50 billion and would not be completed until 2053.
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The proposed second section of the loop would run from Box Hill to Melbourne Airport, followed by a final link through the western suburbs to Werribee.
Michael Buxton, professor of Environment and Planning at RMIT, said it was remarkable the State Government committed to the project months before the 2018 election without knowing how much it would cost or considering alternatives.
“Infrastructure Australia and Infrastructure Victoria are supposed to be set up to assess and prioritize major projects and to provide an assessment of whether they are worth pursuing,” he said.
“[Victoria] he didn’t, he just committed to the project, regardless of what anyone else thought.”
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