Daniel Andrews knocks back $750m Western Distributor offer: PM

MALCOLM Turnbull says he is prepared to put up to $750 million into Labor’s Western Distributor in return for the Federal Government owning a slice of the toll road in the future.

Malcolm Turnbull says he is prepared to put hundreds of millions of dollars into Labor’s Western Distributor project. Picture: Supplied

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MALCOLM Turnbull says he is prepared to put hundreds of millions of dollars into Labor’s Western Distributor in return for the Federal Government owning a slice of the toll road in the future.

But the plan for the Commonwealth to ­“co-invest” as much as $750 million in the project to ease West Gate Bridge congestion is being ­rebuffed by Premier Daniel Andrews.

In an exclusive interview with the Herald Sun, the Prime Minister has revealed he told Premier Andrews at this month’s Council of Australian Governments meeting that the Commonwealth was prepared to help fund the $5.5 billion project, which will join the West Gate Freeway to CityLink via a new road and tunnel.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during an interview in his Sydney offices. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Mr Turnbull said: “I remember raising this with Andrews at the COAG … I said, ‘Look, as I understand it, your plan is to make a state government contribution to the cost. The toll road operator will make their investment, they will have a 30-year right (estimated) … at the end of which the asset comes back to the state government so that in effect ... it could be made a non-toll road, or let to a new toll road operator.

“I said, ‘Well what about, we will co-invest with you to support this. But then when the toll-road franchise comes to an end, then we share in that asset and then we can make a decision to what we do about it’.

“His response was … it never went any further.

“That was an opportunity where if he’d been prepared to talk we could’ve relieved the taxpayer, the Victorian government.”

The Andrews Government said earlier this year it would put in about $1.5 billion for the Western Distributor, which will provide a second river crossing.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews at a press conference after the COAG meeting at Parliament House. Picture: Kym Smith

Artist impression of entrance to Western Distributor tunnel. Picture: Supplied

Tolling giant Transurban, which proposed the new road, will put in the remaining $3.5 billion in return for an extension of its CityLink deed and tolling revenue from the Western Distributor itself.

If Canberra shared the government investment in the Western Distributor, it would put in about $750 million.

When he announced the state would plan to part-fund the road itself, Mr Andrews said he believed Mr Turnbull was “not interested” in helping pay for the project.

But the PM was adamant this week that the COAG approach was the second time he had discussed the offer with the Premier, but he had ­received no response.

Currently, the business case for the Western Distributor assumes that the state would take ownership of the asset once Transurban’s contract to run the toll road expires in about 30 years.

The business case says that there would be an opportunity for a federal “grant” and that money would simply be funnelled in by the state.

The government slammed the PM on Friday night: “The Prime Minister for Sydney should stop shortchanging Victoria and provide our state with its fair share,” spokeswoman Lisa Maksimovic said.

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