East West Link decision returns to haunt Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews

DANIEL Andrews’s decision to waste $1.1b killing off the East West Link has returned to haunt him, with his hand-picked infrastructure advisers listing it as a key project.

Mr Andrews controversially dumped the East West Link. Picture: Nicole Garmston

• 30-year plan for Victoria’s future

PREMIER Daniel Andrews’s decision to waste $1.1 billion killing off the East West Link has returned to haunt him, with his hand-picked infrastructure advisers listing it as a key project.

In a sensational report to be released Thursday, Infrastructure Victoria lists the East West stages one and two as ­important to “meet Victoria’s infrastructure needs’’.

Mr Andrews controversially dumped East West, despite contracts having been signed with the previous Napthine government.

Stage one of the $17 billion project would have provided a new tunnel connecting the Eastern Freeway to CityLink, with stage two connecting CityLink and the Western Ring Rd.

The new report backing East West will be highly embarrassing for Mr Andrews, who set up Infrastructure Victoria last year to provide independent advice on the state’s building needs.

It will also provide a boost to federal Liberal MPs in the eastern suburbs who are still campaigning for East West Link to be built and will put pressure on Labor leader Bill Shorten, who is fighting to hold on to marginal Labor seats in the outer east, Chisholm and Bruce.

The East West stages are important to “meet Victoria’s infrastructure needs’’, according to the report.

Mr Andrews said in October he was setting up Infrastructure Victoria to “give us clear, expert advice that is independent of politics and focused on our state’s priorities’’.

The body is due to release its “foundation paper’’ on Thursday.

A copy was seen by the Herald Sun, and it examines Victoria’s infrastructure needs for the next 30 years.

“The purpose of this paper is to put all the options we’ve thought of for meeting Victoria’s infrastructure needs on the table and to invite you to contribute your views and ideas,’’ it states.

Under the headline “new and expanded assets’’ in one section of the report, it lists: “Eastern Freeway to CityLink connection (EWE) — improve connectivity across the city from east to west linking the Eastern Freeway to CityLink.

“CityLink to Western Ring Road connection (EWW) — Improve connectivity across the city from west to east, linking CityLink with M80.’’

An international airport in Melbourne’s southeast is suggested in the report.

The 148-page “All Things Considered’’ report also includes controversial options such as closing small rural schools, building a second Melbourne port, a third international airport in Melbourne’s southeast, expanding the desalination plant at Wonthaggi and using recycled water for human consumption.

But it is the ghost of the East West Link, which will haunt Mr Andrews, who pledged before the 2014 state election to tear up the contract because it “wasn’t worth the paper it was written on’’.

The report makes no mention of the government’s priority road project, the $5.5 billion Western Distributor, proposed by private toll road operator Transurban, which links the West Gate Freeway to CityLink.

The release of the report will also provide another headache for Mr Shorten.

As head of the Australian Workers Union and the member for Maribyrnong, Mr Shorten twice wrote letters backing the East West Link project.

But after Mr Andrews axed it, Mr Shorten said he no longer supported it being built.

Liberal MP for the federal seat of Deakin, Michael Sukkar, said the report showed how flawed the decision was to kill off the East West Link.

“This report confirms Bill Shorten’s absolute lack of judgment when he backed Daniel Andrews’s decision to waste $1.1b of taxpayers’ money cancelling the East West Link,’’ he said.

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