Victorians are tied to the tracks in a shameless game of chicken

If truth is the first casualty in election campaigns, as it is in war, then coming in closely behind are trust and responsibility. Witness the fire and counterfire this week between the major parties over the Suburban Rail Loop, the Airport Rail link and money. On Monday Opposition Leader Peter Dutton pronounced the death knell for the Suburban Rail Loop if the Coalition wins the May 3 election.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Senator Bridget McKenzie at Marnong Estate winery on Tuesday in the Melbourne seat of Calwell, where they vowed to withdraw federal funding from the Suburban Rail Loop.Credit: James Brickwood

The $2.2 billion of federal money committed to the first stage of the project, SRL East, would be withdrawn, as would another $2 billion from a $4 billion upgrade of Sunshine station, which had been announced last month by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier Jacinta Allan. The money instead would be used to complete funding for the Melbourne Airport Rail link.

In the blizzard of financial promises made in an election campaign, we hope this one from Dutton does not melt in the cold hard light of the post-election landscape. The Age does not believe, and has said so previously, that the Suburban Rail Loop justifies its mammoth costs in the context of the state’s dire financial standing and greater and more immediate infrastructure priorities. SRL East, at present, is estimated to cost $34.5 billion. Victoria wants the federal government to put in more than $9 billion, on top of the $2.2 billion already sent from Canberra.

While Allan keeps defending the project’s urgency, her argument’s wings are clipped somewhat when the state government tells bidders for the work to hold back on spending for three years to ease budget pressures. On Tuesday, she would not say how much cancelling the contracts for SRL East would cost if work did not progress. The minister responsible, Harriet Shing, refused to rule out putting her signature to more contracts before the election.

Dutton, however, in making his either-or argument over transport funding, has fallen into the trap of thinking a divide and conquer approach is the end of the matter. After the headlines come the ripple effects. One of the most far-reaching of these is the consequences of the overhaul of the Sunshine station precinct.

As The Age’s Chip Le Grand reported last month, there are sound arguments, backed by Infrastructure Victoria, for spending money on Sunshine to boost suburban and regional services even if the huge pricetag is hard to fathom.

To Dutton’s announcement that he would take $2 billion earmarked for the Sunshine hub to go towards the $13 billion Airport Rail link, Allan declared it would result in a substandard rejig that would leave passengers from all directions stranded.

Dutton insists Sunshine would still be upgraded as part of the Airport Rail project. As in nearly all election pledges, the devil is in the detail, and it’s not yet entirely clear how the opposition would deliver more for less.

Dutton is on stronger ground over the Suburban Rail Loop. Despite federal Labor committing $2.2 billion to it during the last election, this year it has limited funding to “tangible elements”. Infrastructure Australia has recommended no more funding until a review of costing and how the state would find the money for it.

Credit: Matt Golding

Dutton and Coalition infrastructure spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie have labelled SRL East a “cruel hoax”. Politically the federal opposition may be on the right track, with polling in The Age on Wednesday suggesting Allan’s popularity is plumbing fresh lows even as state Labor’s primary vote might be bottoming out.

The state government meanwhile ploughs on. What will it do if Dutton is elected? What will Allan do if federal Labor, which is showing ever less enthusiasm for the project, follows Infrastructure Australia’s lead and refuses to give more funding? Equally, what will the state opposition do if Dutton is elected? It has said it can’t commit to scrapping or keeping the project until it knows the cost for either option, instead calling for a “pause”, whatever that might mean.

None of these positions is one Victorian taxpayers would seek to be in. We have been critical of the project, but equally we see a greater, and crueller, hoax in political parties seeking the trust of voters by using obfuscation.

It all feels shameless point-scoring and uses a generationally significant amount of public money in a distasteful game of chicken.

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