West Gate Tunnel out, Suburban Rail Loop in, following Labor’s decisive election victory

Jacinta Allan was due to visit the West Gate Tunnel on Monday. As the scale of Labor’s federal election victory unfolded, she was rerouted to another project.

State Government spin doctors switched Premier Jacinta Allan’s Monday media event from the West Gate Tunnel to the Suburban Rail Loop following Labor’s federal election triumph.

The Herald Sun can reveal that plans were made prior to Saturday for Ms Allan to attend a press conference and tour of the $10.2 billion West Gate Tunnel on Monday morning.

But when votes kept rolling in for Anthony Albanese on Saturday night and it was clear the result was an emphatic Labor victory, strategists hastily organised an event at a site of the $34.5 billion Suburban Rail Loop East.

The event on Monday was attended by six state MPs who will have the rail line run through their seats, and tourism minister Steve Dimopoulos led a round of applause for the premier as she arrived.

The SRL East, which is a 26km tunnel between Cheltenham and Box Hill, was a divisive issue during the election campaign, after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton promised to claw back $2.2bn in Commonwealth funding for the “pipe dream” project if he was prime minister.

Works underway on the Suburban Rail Loop site at Heatherton. Picture: Mark Stewart

Mr Dutton’s team also targeted Ms Allan during the campaign, who was rarely sighted at public events in the final fortnight and was identified as a drag on the ALP vote by pollsters.

Saturday’s results, in which Labor held all its seats and snaffled Menzies and Deakin in Melbourne’s east, were seized on by Ms Allan to return fire at her detractors.

“I think the results yesterday – they’re not despite what’s going on in Victoria, they’re because of what’s going on here in Victoria,” Ms Allan said on Monday.
One Labor figure said the premier’s supporters made it sound like the SRL was “more important to civilisation than the pyramids of Egypt”.

Others said tying the project to federal results was “delusional”, while right wing powerbroker Stephen Conroy told Sky News it was offensive to federal Labor.

Mr Conroy is a factional ally to Deputy Premier Ben Carroll, who would likely be a leading contender to take on the top job if Ms Allan was to lose party room support.

Mr Carroll this week said “I’ve always supported Jacinta Allan and as her deputy you would expect nothing less”.

Works underway on the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) site at Box Hill. Picture: Mark Stewart

But when asked whether the results on Saturday provided a mandate for the SRL he said the election “was a strong win for federal Labor”.

A spokesman for the premier did not directly respond to questions about the switch in events, but pointed out that it was a rostered day off for workers at the WGT so there were no works happening.

He said the government was “investing in the infrastructure Victorians need.”

The state opposition has called for the SRL to be scrapped, and promised to review contracts if elected next year.
Opposition major projects spokesman, Evan Mulholland, said the premier “is living in a fantasy land if she thinks a federal election was a mandate for her pet project”.