The extraordinary thing about the virtual partnership between the Socialist Left Victorian Labor government and the law-breaking Victorian construction division of the CFMEU is the questions that no one is asking.

Australia’s most indebted state government, with a gross debt pile forecast to blow out to $239 billion by 2026-27 and a budget that this year hit business and property owners with a decade of “temporary” payroll and land tax debt levies, is committed to tunnelling ahead with the $130 billion, 90-kilometre Suburban Rail Loop.