The rail loop rebrand is no accident as spin over substances reaches a peak

When Daniel Andrews stood straight faced and rebranded his mega rail loop SRL Airport it was a meme-worthy manipulation of facts.

Politics and spin over substance reached a new peak in Victoria this week.

Premier Daniel Andrews stood with a straight face and rebranded the bipartisan Melbourne Airport Rail Link as part of Labor’s Suburban Rail Loop.

This was “SRL Airport”, Andrews and his chosen successor as premier, Jacinta Allan, said.

A nationally significant project was reconceptualised as a gateway to the ‘burbs, as part of Dan’s special project.

Why did Andrews and Allan do this?

For a start, the government is desperate to remind everyone it is building SRL – which it sold in 2018 as a 90km loop between Cheltenham and Werribee.

Big news - work on SRL Airport is underway.

We've had decades of talk and empty promises from others about rail to the airport.

We're doing it. pic.twitter.com/BgESRq7mfV

— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) October 30, 2022

It wants to convince the world that the airport rail link was part of that plan, and that the “loop” is intact.

Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman Matt Bach calls that gaslighting.

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen, the human antithesis of spin, called it an attempt to piggyback on to a popular project, sharing a satirical meme saying: “did you know if you combine wine and dinner you get winner?”

More subtly, Dan is trying to convince voters that Matthew Guy – who wants to shelve the first stage of the SRL from Cheltenham to Box Hill and put money into Victoria’s crumbling health system if premier – is somehow against airport rail.

The Andrews government is now trying to convince the world the airport rail link is part of SRL. Picture: Simon Dallinger

No doubt a shonky social media campaign is already announcing that “only Labor will build SRL Airport”.

The manipulation of facts has always been a forte of this premier.

Now it’s meme-worthy.

The job of selling the SRL as a “loop” will start to get a bit trickier down the track, but that – along with Victoria’s finances – will be someone else’s problem.

Take a Broadmeadows passenger heading to Werribee.

According to the government, that passenger would be able to get to Tullamarine from Broadmeadows via “SRL North” in a couple of decades.

At that stage, “SRL Airport” would also be built, with an elevated station on the south side of the airport.

That elevated structure prohibits other lines – such as SRL North – connecting into the same station.

This means our Broadmeadows friend would need to traipse between stations to board a train towards Sunshine.

At Sunshine they would need to change train again, to get to Werribee on a planned new line.

The alternative, of course, would have been to promise a stand-alone rail tunnel from Tullamarine to Werribee, which would have been unaffordable and unachievable.

Good policy looks to have dictated why that idea was junked.