Meanwhile, in Victoria: Will Western Distributor project take its toll?

Decision to proceed with Western Distributor project proposal without federal help adds much-needed clarity.

A still from this week’s design update announcement.

Victoria’s decision to proceed with Transurban’s proposal for the Western Distributor toll road project without federal help provides some much needed clarity to the road infrastructure picture in state.

The picture has been somewhat out of focus since the Andrews government controversially cancelled the East West Link project as soon as it won office.

Today’s decision means it is proceeding with something resembling the western section of that project — a tunnel linking City Link and the West Gate Freeway, effectively providing a second river crossing and reducing reliance on the choke-point of the West Gate Bridge.

With the federal government, which Victoria hoped would contribute $1.5bn to this project, out of the picture, that cost will now fall on Victorian taxpayers and motorists through an extension of tolls on the Transurban’s CityLink network for another 10 years and new tolls on the Western Distributor project itself.

The Opposition has quickly found their stride on the issue slotting the move as billing motorists in the east (where their vote is strongest) for a road in the west (where it is weakest) and accusing the government of going deeper into debt to meet the $2bn cost to the state’s finances.

The first point is not quite true though, as the tolled CityLink network covers the first section of the Tullamarine Freeway in the northwest and the Bolte Bridge in the west, as well as the Domain Tunnel on Monash leading to the southeast.

Aside from the finances, the key question now is how effective the Transurban-conceived design will be in battling rising congestion in Melbourne that can make east-west journeys across the city a nightmare at peak times.

Not surprisingly, the company and the government are singing its praises, predicting it will slash travel times by up to 20 minutes and take trucks off suburban streets.

Confronted with the Opposition’s line about saddling motorists in the east with the cost, the government argues that the project includes a major upgrade of the Monash Freeway and aids the overall flow of traffic across the whole road network.

The Opposition says it will reach capacity well before the tolls end.

The other line of criticism of the government’s move is appears to hand Transurban an advantage in negotiating the exact length of the CityLink concession extension, given the government is now wholeheartedly committed to the project and cannot really abandon it.

DON’T FORGET THE POLITICS

The announcement also gives the government yet another major project to show off to the electorate when it goes to the polls in 2018.

The $6bn grade separations across Melbourne will be well under way or finished, the $11bn Metro rail tunnel project should be moving in a positive direction and the overhaul of existing major roads to improve traffic flows will be well under way.

Sure, short-term traffic congestion caused by road works will be vile.

But voters will find it tough to dump a government seen to be doing something.

But never forget the political poison posed by Labor throwing away more than $1bn on a road that should have been built.

DAN’S THE MAN

Victoria’s licensing regulator has reportedly thwarted attempts by officials to ban a Dan Murphy’s liquor outlet in an area in southeastern Melbourne that is both highly populated and considered a crime hotspot.

No-one can blame police for wanting to to do anything to stop violence, particularly of the domestic strain.

Yet the campaign to stop the store in Cranbourne East deserves some scrutiny.

Why should law-abiding drinkers be denied the opportunity to buy good, cheap alcohol?

This is especially so, given the proliferation of supermarket outlets that do a whole lot more to normalise alcohol use than, say, a stand-alone Dan Murphy’s.

Which is not to run an advertisement for the alcohol chain but it is to raise the question of whether there is a danger of going too far in the drive to socially engineer a legal market.

It was, of course, Labor’s John Cain in the 1980s, who deregulated liquor licensing in Victoria, to create one of the world’s great bar cultures.

This deregulation, though, came at a cost.

The cost was increased street violence in the CBD.

One of the core problems was that more relaxed laws in the city meant that riffraff sprinted from the suburbs to, basically, get drunk, go to girlie bars and then assault people.

Labor’s John Brumby sought to regulate the market but sensibly wound back the more extreme measures.

It must surely frustrate police to watch grog being poured down the throats of idiots, only then being forced to deal with the aftermath.

But it seems it would have been a step too far to block one liquor outlet when there are already scores of others to choose from.

The grog horse has already bolted.

GEELONG ELECTIONS NEXT YEAR

The latest news on the dysfunctional Geelong Council is that voters will go to the polls next year after a deal to dump the councillors and install administrators.

This was instead of the originally plan for elections in 2020.

This is a good result; there is no doubt it is a toxic council but democracy delayed is democracy denied. Even if it is a regional clown hall.