Melbourne Metro tunnel, North East Link among projects to take shape in weeks, amid Cabinet shake-up
Homeowners in Melbourne’s northeast will know by the end of next year whether their properties will be acquired for the construction of the North East Link. It comes as the Premier is set to shake-up his Cabinet, with one minister this morning stepping down. Here’s what else is to come.
Victoria State Election
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Homeowners in Melbourne’s northeast will know by the end of next year whether their properties will need to be acquired for the construction of Victoria’s biggest road project.
It comes as Premier Daniel Andrews is set to shake-up his Cabinet, with one minister this morning stepping down.
Fresh from a thumping election victory, Mr Andrews this morning released the first tender for the $15.8 billion North East Link, to connect the Eastern Freeway with the Metropolitan Ring Road.
The first tender is for a $200 million early works package which is expected to get underway in 2020, once contracts are signed late next year and planning and environmental approvals are put in place.
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Homeowners will then be informed if their properties will be compulsorily acquired.
“We said that we’d take this project to the election and let Victorians make up their mind — the people have spoken and North East Link starts today,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews predicted there would be strong international interest in the tendering process.
“We chose to be a government that builds, and that’s what we’ve done,” Mr Andrews said.
It comes as the Herald Sun revealed giant borers will begin excavating a rail tunnel beneath the heart of Melbourne within weeks, after the re-elected premier vowed not to waste a moment in transforming Victoria.
“We’ve done the hard work to make sure we’re ready to hit the ground running … We’ll work hard every day to repay the community,” he said.
Construction crews will break ground before Christmas, so tunnel-boring machines can begin major work on the $11 billion Melbourne Metro railway tunnel early in the new year.
Labor’s thumping election victory on Saturday has seen it secure at least 52 of 88 Lower House seats. The Coalition had won just 24, and 10 more were too close to call.
Mr Andrews said there would be “some changes” to his Cabinet line-up.
Minister for Women and the Prevention of Family Violence Natalie Hutchins, who was comfortably re-elected on Saturday, announced this morning that she would step down from the front bench.
Ms Hutchins took on the prevention of family violence portfolio last year, adding to her responsibilities as Aboriginal Affairs and Industrial Relations Minister, after the tragic passing of Labor MP Fiona Richardson.
But she said she would now depart Cabinet, in part to recover from her own family loss.
“After an amazing four years as a Minister in the Andrews Labor Government I have decided not to recontest my position in the Cabinet in order to focus on my family and myself after the passing of my husband Stephen Hutchins last year,” she said.
“I would like to thank the Premier for his steadfast professional and personal support in good and bad times, as well as the Cabinet team.”
Ms Hutchins thanked staff in her ministerial office for their “hard work and personal support”.
Premier Andrews paid tribute to Ms Hutchins, saying his friend and colleague had done an “amazing job” as a minister in difficult personal circumstances.
He said there would be a place for her in his frontbench team in the future.
“I am very proud of the person she is and the contribution she’s made,” Mr Andrews said.
“She’s decided to put her son, to put her family, ahead of politics ... I’m very proud of her for making that choice and I wish her well.”
The Premier said he would finalise his new Cabinet lineup in the “next couple of days”.
“We are very keen, all of us, to get straight back to work,” he said.
“It’s always good to have new blood, fresh legs are always good.”
Labor sources said Corrections Minister Gayle Tierney and Sports Minister John Eren were most at risk of losing their spots. Fresh faces such as Danny Pearson and Gabrielle Williams are being touted as replacements. Former ministers Jane Garrett and Adem Somyurek are also in the mix to return to the front bench.
Mr Andrews will recall parliament next month to try to pass some Bills, including for better nurse-to-patient ratios, before Christmas.
Other promises likely to be fast-tracked include a $1.3 billion plan to put solar panels on 700,000 homes and calling Australia’s first royal commission on mental health.
Labor will win more Upper House seats, smoothing its path to enact its policies.
But negotiations in parliament’s upper chamber, the Legislative Council, are still likely to be complex: as many as 10 candidates from a rag-tag crew of six minor parties are also likely to win seats.
And in Canberra on Monday, Liberal MPs nervous about next year’s federal election will hold a crisis meeting with Prime Minster Scott Morrison.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy is considering his political future.
Colleagues said he was unlikely to continue as Liberal leader, as the fallout of the party’s disastrous campaign continued.
Shadow attorney-general John Pesutto is shaping as a leadership contender, though he is himself in a tense fight to retain his seat of Hawthorn against a retired naval officer.
Mr Andrews said winning a second term was “the greatest honour of my life”.
“(Victorians) have resoundingly endorsed our positive and optimistic plan for the next four years,” he said.
“I’m also very proud and pleased that (Victorians) have comprehensively rejected the negativity, the fear, the spite — that small brand of nasty politics that was on offer and was rejected in record terms.”
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His government endured several major scandals in the past four years.
Police are still investigating Labor’s $388,000 rort to pay political campaigners in the 2014 election.
But Mr Andrews said the election result showed what mattered to Victorians.
“Some things are very big on Spring St, and they don’t mean very much on Main St,” he said.
The Greens, who had a disastrous campaign, look likely to lose Northcote, but could manage to hold on to Prahran and Melbourne.
Shepparton independent MP Suzanna Sheed is expected to be returned, and will likely be joined on the crossbench by former Mildura deputy mayor Ali Cupper, who ran against Nationals MP Peter Crisp.
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