Libs threaten legal battle over West Gate Tunnel documents
The state Opposition has slammed a refusal to release documents over toxic soil that has stalled the West Gate Tunnel Project as “circus-like behaviour”. Now it is threatening more legal action.
VIC News
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The state Opposition has threatened more legal action over the embattled West Gate Tunnel Project as it fights for the release of documents.
Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman David Davis has called for the release of documents relating to the toxic soil that has stalled the $6.7 billion project.
It comes as court documents reveal the builders have been petitioning the State Government for concessions since December 2018.
In one request, CPB and John Holland asked the government to use its powers in fast-tracking major transport projects to assist with issues at the tunnel site.
They also repeatedly made claims for changes to the project’s scope, extension of time and additional costs, and in April tried to declare their contract invalid because of “common or mutual mistake”.
The Andrews Government knocked back those requests, with Transurban now heading to the Supreme Court as its building contractors seek to tear up their contract.
Mr Davis said he also had been seeking soil and reuse management plans for the West Gate Tunnel and other documents relating to the management of toxic soil.
But his application, made under Freedom of Information laws, has been blocked by the state’s environmental regulator, the Environment Protection Authority.
The application, lodged in December, is under review by the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner.
But Mr Davis said he would take the matter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal next week, slamming the refusal to release the documents as “circus-like behaviour”.
“This is now six months that the government has fought the release of these key documents about toxic soil,” he said.
“Those documents should be in the public domain. The community has a right to know what is going on here.”
Tunnel-boring machines in Yarraville are yet to be used because there is no site in Victoria licensed to take the toxic soil, contaminated with the industrial chemical PFAS, that they will unearth.
Maddingley Brown Coal in Bacchus Marsh, Hi-Quality Group in Bulla, and Cleanaway in Ravenhall are bidding to handle the soil.
A government spokeswoman said the relevant environmental reports relating to soil contamination expected on the West Gate Tunnel Project had been released in 2017.
“It’s time for Transurban and its builder, CPB-John Holland, to get on with the West Gate Tunnel and the government will be holding Transurban to its contract,” she said.
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