Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews may have made a big mistake

DID Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews make a huge mistake when he ditched Melbourne’s East West Link project?

THE Victorian Treasurer has denied a leaked report that found Premier Daniel Andrews stuffed up when he ditched the East West Link project.

Mr Andrews was accused of wasting $1.1 billion of federal funding when he scrapped the proposed 18km road to help relieve congestion and deal with population growth in Melbourne.

Mr Andrews created Infrastructure Victoria to get advice on other road priorities, but it seems it has backfired and the Herald Sun reports the body will release a report saying the East West Link is important to “meet Victoria’s infrastructure needs”.

Treasurer Tim Pallas denied the report and said the Labor government would never resurrect the dumped East West Link, despite Infrastructure Victoria’s support for the project.

“When Infrastructure Victoria says its priority and economic value are low, I think it really just sustains the point that this government made the right decision when we ceased that project,” the treasurer told reporters in Ballarat.

The Victorian Government axed the toll road project when it won the 2014 election, ultimately spending $1.1 billion not to build it.

An Australian Infrastructure Plan report, released in February, said the east west corridor to the north of Melbourne’s CBD was a major congestion challenge that needed to be addressed in the next five years.

Commuters travelling between the Eastern Freeway and City Link are “forced to navigate the congested inner city road network, or the heavily used M1 corridor to the south of the city”.

AAP reported if the Victorian Government didn’t deal with the east west corridor congestion within the next five years, bad traffic could cost Melbourne $144 million by 2031, up from $73 million in 2011.

Mr Pallas has previously called the East West Link a “zombie road project” and believed public transport was the way to deal with congestion.

“Access to the city should be by way of public transport principally,” he said.

Mr Pallas said Victoria was getting on with other high-priority projects such as the removal of level crossings, building the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project and the CityLink and Tullamarine widening.

Shadow Treasurer Michael O’Brien said the decision to scrap the East West Link was the worst Victorian political decision in a generation.

“$1.1 billion lost, with nothing to show for it, and still a need to build the East West Link,” Mr O’Brien told reporters.