$10m bill for Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop consultants

Victorian taxpayers have been stung with a bill of almost $10m for legal and financial consultants working on Melbourne’s controversial Suburban Rail Loop.

Workers on the Suburban Rail Loop site at Box Hill in eastern Melbourne last November. Picture: Mark Stewart

Victorian taxpayers have been stung with a bill of almost $10m for legal and financial consultants working on the controversial Suburban Rail Loop.

The Weekend Australian can reveal the Andrews and Allan governments have racked up the seven-figure bill for private-sector advice for the mega-project that links Cheltenham to Box Hill and is expected to cost at least $125bn.

Amid ongoing questions about how the SRL will be funded, figures reveal consultants and law firms are among the biggest winners as the government attempts to lock in financing for the project.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) pocketed more than $8m between 2019 and 2023 for what Big Build documents describe as “commercial and financial advisory services for the Department of Treasury and Finance led funding and financing workstream for Suburban Rail Loop Project”.

Ashurst, a major law firm, was paid more than $1m for “legal advice regarding the funding and financing strategy” for the SRL, documents show.

And consultant E3 Advisory was paid more than $700,000 to “undertake a review of the cost estimates developed by the Suburban Rail Loop Authority”.

Works under way on the Suburban Rail Loop site at Burwood. Picture: Mark Stewart

The Allan government has defended the expenditure.

“SRL is Australia’s largest housing project, with the first stage delivering 70,000 new homes where Victorians tell us they want them – close to a brand new train line, jobs, transport, education and health services,” a government spokesman said.

“Victorians have endorsed SRL at the previous two elections and this city-shaping project will transform how we move across Melbourne, cutting travel times, delivering a train station to Australia’s biggest universities for the first time and giving millennials an opportunity to enter the housing market.

“Like all governments, we consult with the private sector on a range of infrastructure projects, ensuring that we deliver the best for Victorians,” the spokesman said.

The then minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Jacinta Allan, now Premier, inspects early loop works in 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Wayne Taylor

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has maintained it will cost between $30bn to $34.5bn to deliver the first stage.

The Weekend Australian has previously reported that Victoria’s Big Build senior executives and board members have been forced to repay the cost of alcohol “inadvertently” charged to taxpayer-funded credit cards at two dinners.

Hundreds of credit card statements for Suburban Rail Loop Authority and the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority reveal senior public servants have been flashing their corporate credit cards, racking up thousands of taxpayer dollars for expenses including limousines during overseas trips.

The SRLA confirmed that any transactions that may have inadvertently included the purchase of alcohol had been ­reviewed and reimbursed, including the two “board ­dinners”.

The Weekend Australian has obtained credit card records showing that on January 19, 2023, $724 was slapped on a taxpayer-funded credit card for a “board dinner” at the RACV Club in Melbourne.

On August 29 of the same year $250 was charged to taxpayers for a “board dinner” at the Prince Wine Store.

The Suburban Rail Loop Authority confirmed that both expenses had been repaid.