Bid to block West Gate Tunnel a drain on the state: business group

VICTORIAN parliamentary intervention to block the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel would cripple confidence and cause higher costs, a leading business group has warned.

A LEADING business group has warned that a Victorian parliamentary intervention to block the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel would cripple confidence and cause higher costs.

Chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott, told the Herald Sun that Victorian infrastructure wars were harming the community.

Ms Westacott issued the warning ahead of a Legislative Council vote on whether the planning scheme for the controversial tunnel, which would connect the West Gate Freeway to CityLink, should be scrapped.

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Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott. Picture: David Geraghty

“Governments and Oppositions are entitled to disagree on policy, but at some point the government of the day has to be able to get on with delivering the infrastructure the community so desperately needs.” Ms Westacott said.

In a nod to the East West Link toll road, which Daniel Andrews dumped and so wasted $1.2 billion already spent, Ms Westacott said “the cost of delaying yet another major transport project in Victoria would be immense”.
“You cannot just turn on the tap and expect infrastructure investment to flow. It will be years before another project of this scale will be ready to be built,” she said.

Plans for the West Gate Tunnel project in Melbourne. Source: West Gate Tunnel website

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“If and when that happens, the State will face higher costs and the project is likely to take much longer to build.”

The state Opposition and the Greens have slammed the West Gate Tunnel project, saying it would pour billions of dollars into the pockets of project builders, Transurban.

Opposition public transport spokesman David Davis has said this would be done at the expense of motorists in the southeast who would pay tolls for an extra decade on CityLink.

Transurban CEO Scott Charlton. Photo AAP.

But Premier Daniel Andrews said almost 1000 people working on the project, which is “under way”, would not be stopped.

The RACV has also called for the project to continue.
General manager of public policy, Bryce Prosser, said the RACV “has previously expressed concerns with elements of this project” but did not believe “the road should be opposed on principle”.
“Doing nothing is not an option and vital infrastructure projects need to move forward and not become party political,” he said.

“The outer west and northwest of Melbourne is already behind when it comes to infrastructure.”

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