Big, bold and a ballooning budget: Winners and losers of Victorian Labor’s decade-long Big Build program

It’s big, bold and comes with a ballooning budget. Labor’s massive infrastructure program has been the signature policy of its 10-years in office. So who have been the winners and who have been the losers?

• Kennett: Only a bad gov builds until it’s broke
• Bracks: Labor is cutting congestion, travel times

Big, bold, and with a ballooning budget.

Labor’s decade-long infrastructure blitz has left an indelible mark across Victoria; from its signature policy that has removed 84 level crossings, to building 47 major roads.

With an infrastructure program worth $100 billion on the books, public sector projects will continue to shape the next decade, but experts say a major financial correction is needed in the state to allow the Big Build to be the new normal, rather than an “aberration”.

The pace of construction was frenetic from the moment Daniel Andrews took the reins as premier, tying the public sector industry to economic growth and showing voters his decision to tear up the contract for the East West Link – a road tunnel under the CBD locked in by the outgoing Napthine Government – wasn’t his defining infrastructure moment.

The Metro Tunnel has been one of the state government’s most prominent projects.

Traffic chaos and disruption became a hallmark of Labor in power, and it became an ongoing challenge to convince Melburnians that the end result was worth the pain.

Infrastructure Partnerships Australia chief executive, Adrian Dwyer, said in 2014 the new government “started on shaky ground” because the East West Link cancellation soured confidence.

“They were astute enough to quickly move to things like Melbourne Metro, and later the West Gate Tunnel, as well as high velocity programs like the level crossing removals,” he said.

“If the metric is that they changed the fabric of the city, then that’s a tick.

“Did they pay a lot of money for this? Yes.”

Mr Dwyer said higher costs were partly a trade off for the speed in which things were built, causing challenges for the following decade.

“How do you repair fiscal settings so that this infrastructure boom isn’t an aberration, and is able to continue?” he said.

Pollster and former ALP assistant secretary Kosmos Samaras said infrastructure investments had transformed the city but there was a growing divide between winners and losers.

“There are parts of Melbourne which have become, over a period of 10 years, wealthier and a lot easier to live in, well serviced by a big infrastructure spend,” he said.

“Over the same period, there have been areas of Melbourne that have become poorer and a lot more difficult to live in.

“The life expectancy in Melton is 13 years lower than those living in Bayside.”

Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman, David Southwick, accused Labor of putting “all our eggs into one basket” while some suburbs were neglected.

“Residents of Melton are stuck on overcrowded, unreliable diesel trains and families in Donnybrook don’t even have a footpath to the local train station and roads across Victoria are crumbling,” he said.

“For a decade, Labor has picked winners and losers on basic transport infrastructure, as major projects have blown out by more than $40 billion and counting.”

Since it took office in 2014, Labor has garnered headlines for its mega projects. Picture: David Crosling

Since it took office in 2014, Labor has garnered headlines for its mega projects.

Next year, the $15.6bn Metro Tunnel is scheduled to open, reshaping the city’s rail network.

While it has blown its budget by up to $4.7bn, it’s been running on time.

Evan Tattersall, who was chief executive of Rail Projects Victoria from 2014 to 2022, said it was a game-changer because it would create more rail capacity through the heart of the system that allows for further line upgrades, but that a lot of work went into explaining to Victorians that “the outcome is going to be worth the disruption.”

“People may not like the disruption but if they understand why you are doing it, and the benefits that come with these massive projects, then they are more accepting,” he said.

More difficult to explain have been delays and blowouts on the $10.2bn West Gate Tunnel, which has left motorists seething in congestion for three years longer than planned.

Labor insiders maintained in the first two terms that all news was good news for its infrastructure agenda, even when blowouts emerged, due to jobs created.

“They weren’t just jobs, they were high-paying jobs,” one said.

At last count, 16,000 people were employed on public sector infrastructure projects in Victoria.

At last count, 16,000 people were employed on public sector infrastructure projects in Victoria. Picture: Supplied

Smaller scale builds – such as 75 new schools that have opened in the past decade – kept the infrastructure pipeline full to bursting.

With an annual public sector spend peaking at $24bn, Treasurer Tim Pallas has been forced to tap the brakes, including by parking the Melbourne Airport Rail Link for four years.

The two most expensive projects in Melbourne’s history are set to hit major milestones in the next decade, with the $26bn North East Link scheduled to open in four years.

Meanwhile the $34.5bn Suburban Rail Loop East, a 26km tunnel to connect Cheltenham in the city’s southeast to Box Hill in the east, continues to divide Labor and Victorians.

Transport Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson said the SRL would change “the way Victorians move around the state forever”, while delivering other critical infrastructure benefits.

“The Suburban Rail Loop is Australia’s largest housing project and we’re getting on with it – helping deliver 70,000 more homes exactly where they’re needed, right next door to jobs, services and public transport,” he said.

In two years, at the next state election, voters will show whether they’re all aboard Labor’s road and rail plans, or are pulling the cord for an emergency exit.