Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says the Victorian government’s Suburban Rail Loop has turned into a “cruel hoax”, given the state’s dire finances.

It has been revealed that new bureaucrats on the project have recently been offered pay packets of up to $400,000 a year with work-from-home options.

Mr Dutton says while he supports the development of major projects to ease congestion, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan “doesn’t have a dollar to her name” to put towards it.

“The problem is that I think this has turned into a cruel hoax and I don’t think Jacinta Allan has a dollar to her name that she has to put to the Suburban Rail Loop, and even Anthony Albanese can see that,” Dutton told Tom Elliott on 3AW Radio.

“The Victorian Labor Party is essentially bankrupt, they are driving the economy into rack and ruin.

“I don’t think the Victorian government has any financial capacity to deliver the Suburban Rail Loop, and frankly I think if the prime minister was being honest that would be his judgement as well.”