Prime Minister Scott Morrison must deliver infrastructure presents for Victoria

With a spotty record of delivery and few new commitments to offer in this month’s budget, infrastructure looms as a potential Coalition weak point.

With the Morrison government’s pre-election budget less than a month away, this is about the time ribbons are tied around infrastructure presents for each state.

The problem for the Coalition is the shelves are looking bare for road and rail commitments to make in Victoria – and their gifts from years gone by are still unwrapped.

Up until the 2018 budget, when Malcolm Turnbull announced $5bn to deliver Melbourne’s long-awaited airport rail link, the Coalition had struggled to rebut accusations it was short-changing Victoria on infrastructure. The government doubled down before the 2019 election with extra investments totalling at least $8bn, including fast rail to Geelong, the East West Link, local road upgrades and railway station carparks.

However, as the Herald Sun recently revealed, many Coalition commitments are stuck in the slow lane. Federal Liberal MPs blame the state government, arguing it is refusing to work together in the best interests of Victorians.

The shelves are looking bare for road and rail commitments to make in Victoria. Picture: Gary Ramage

There is some truth to this, particularly on East West. But it is also clear the Coalition made some promises without having any idea what it would take to keep them. While this was laid bare in the Auditor-General’s commuter carpark scheme investigation, poor planning and erroneous costings have also delayed other projects promised for political ends.

There is $225m sitting idle for the Baxter rail link worth $1.5bn, $208m for the Shepparton bypass worth $1.3bn, and $260m for the Glenferrie Rd level crossing worth $410m. These were supposed to be vote-winners in the battlegrounds of Dunkley, Indi and Kooyong. Three years later, voters are entitled to ask how the next three years will be different.

It’s hard to see the Coalition cutting its losses and ditching these projects, but with so much money tied up and so little progress to spruik, Scott Morrison is in a political bind. This is amplified by the fact that while rail links to the airport and Geelong are progressing, they are such long-term endeavours there is still barely a sod to turn.

And there simply aren’t many other road and rail upgrades for the Coalition to back.

The state government only wants cash for the Suburban Rail Loop, and that has been ruled out by the PM, who has no interest in bailing out Daniel Andrews to cover Metro and West Gate tunnel blowouts either. Add in the North East Link, and Victoria’s slate of projects is so full there isn’t necessarily the capacity for another big idea.

The state government wants cash for the Suburban Rail Loop.

At least Morrison’s promises mean Victoria should eventually see more of its fair share. But with a spotty record of delivery and few new commitments to offer in this month’s budget, infrastructure now looms as a potential Coalition weak point.

That’s especially the case when Anthony Albanese can sail in after the budget with a cheque for the Suburban Rail Loop, which just happens to be in Chisholm, the Victorian seat the Labor leader most wants to win.

Burnt by disaster relief

While it might be difficult to remember now, given everything that’s happened over the past two years, there was a point in the Black Summer crisis when Scott Morrison’s leadership could have turned terminal.

The Hawaii holiday, the forced handshakes and the I-don’t-hold-a-hose retort did significant damage to his reputation, which some Liberals feared was irreparable in the minds of voters.

It was a long road back for the PM, who learned from his mistakes and lifted. That’s why it is so hard to understand why he now risks ripping open those scars by failing to fix a ridiculous bureaucratic decision to refuse support to a bushfire-ravaged community in Gippsland.

More than 70 homes were lost in Sarsfield, which was one of the first places Morrison visited during his ill-fated trip in the aftermath. The reception was warmer there than it was in NSW, but any goodwill for the PM among residents has all but evaporated.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Darren Chester in fire-ravaged Sarsfield. Picture: James Ross

When the government opened a bushfire recovery program last year, two Sarsfield community groups banded together to seek $3.5m to build a new hall and playground and upgrade their recreation reserve. They found out last month their application was rejected because their land was owned by the state government.

By the letter of the law, the National Recovery and Resilience Agency made the right call.

But as Gippsland MP Darren Chester said, the agency’s failure to alert the groups to the easily fixable problem until it was too late reeked of “a lack of emotional intelligence and a blind adherence to bureaucracy at the expense of common sense”. Chester, a former member of Morrison’s cabinet, blasted their “stubbornness and stupidity”.

Once the issue was brought to the PM’s attention by the Herald Sun, his office said National Recovery and Resilience Minister Bridget McKenzie would work with the community “to see if there are available options to help Sarsfield get the support they need”.

Of course, Morrison has bigger problems than $3.5m grants, but fixing this immediately would be an easy win. Instead, a struggling community still feels abandoned and ignored.

Labor always complains the PM is there for the photo-op, not the follow-up. He should take every opportunity to avoid proving their point.

Originally published as Prime Minister Scott Morrison must deliver infrastructure presents for Victoria