Commuter parking upgrades dumped as Labor axes Urban Congestion Fund

At least 11 Melbourne commuter carpark upgrades have been dumped after ­federal Labor scrapped the Urban Congestion Fund.

At least 11 commuter carpark upgrades across Melbourne have been dumped. Picture: George Salpigtidis

At least 11 commuter carpark upgrades across Melbourne have been dumped after federal Labor cancelled the former Coalition government’s controversial Urban Congestion Fund.

The move is set to claw back more than $1bn from infrastructure projects that the Albanese government claims did not stack up.

But the state opposition is vowing to revive one of the projects, the desperately needed Glenferrie Rd level-crossing removal, if elected next month.

The Glenferrie Rd project was listed as one of 20 high-­priority level crossings to be ­removed in a 2013 VicRoads study, but $260m of commonwealth funding to remove the project was scrapped.

Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman Matt Bach said the level crossing should have been demolished years ago.

“The Liberals and Nationals are committed to removing level crossings based on need, not politics,” Dr Bach said. “Labor has refused to fix this crossing for nothing more than crass politics – but the Liberals and Nationals will get it done.”

Daniel Andrews on Wednesday insisted he had no conversations with Treasurer Jim Chalmers about dropping some infrastructure projects. Picture: David Crosling

Commuter carparks cut include North Brighton, Sandringham, Hampton, Heatherdale, Heathmont, Boronia, Ferntree Gully, Bentleigh, Narre Warren, Officer and Doncaster.

The projects, several of which Labor claims had cost blowouts, had won almost $120m in federal funding.

“The government is closing down the Urban Congestion Fund and cancelling a number of the Coalition’s most egregious commuter carpark projects,” Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said.

“We’ve taken the hard decision of saying that we’re just not going to proceed with a number of these carparks.”

Daniel Andrews on Wednesday insisted he had no conversations with Treasurer Jim Chalmers about dropping some infrastructure projects – predominantly in Liberal-held federal seats – in exchange for $2.2bn Suburban Rail Loop funding. The money for that project – estimated to have blown out to $150bn from $35bn – has come under fire in Canberra this week, with the federal opposition raising concerns that it hasn’t been recommended by Infrastructure Australia.

Commuter carparks cut include North Brighton, Sandringham, Hampton, Heatherdale, Heathmont, Boronia, Ferntree Gully, Bentleigh, Narre Warren, Officer and Doncaster. Picture: AAP

The Premier said he was pleased to see the federal government keep its election promises, but added that more needed to be done to make up for Victoria’s previous losses.

“There is a long way to go, and we will keep pushing the federal government to make sure that they make up for 10 years of neglect,” Mr Andrews said. “We’re going to keep on pushing for more and more infrastructure funding.”

Deakin MP Michael Sukkar said the Heatherdale and Heathmont carpark upgrades were cancelled for “purely political reasons”.

“Millions have already been spent to get these projects shovel-ready,” he said.

But Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel accepted Labor’s reasoning for cancelling grants for five carparks in her electorate. She said the Morrison government’s UCF choices were “emblematic” of its use of taxpayer cash for pork barrelling.