Harriet Shing dodges questions on how state will pay for SRL without federal funding

Suburban Rail Loop Minister Harriet Shing has repeatedly dodged questions on how the state will pay for the $34.5bn rail line if it can’t secure more federal funding.

The Allan government is refusing to say how it will pay for the $34.5bn Suburban Rail Loop East if it can’t secure more federal funding.

The project, which would connect Cheltenham to Box Hill with 26km of track as the first stage of a 90km rail loop, is already under construction and is scheduled to begin tunnelling next year.

Former premier Daniel Andrews announced the SRL plan in 2018, and later produced a business case that put the likely cost of the first stage at $30-34.5bn, a third of which Labor wanted from the Commonwealth.

But an assessment of the SRL East by Infrastructure Australia, released on Friday afternoon, recommended against providing the $11.5bn sought by Victoria because of the risks that still surround the link.

It said more information would be required from the state before a recommendation on further funding – the Albanese government had already promised $2.2bn – could be made.

The project is already under construction.

This includes more information about a revised cost of the project, which it says is expected to soar above $34.5bn due to massive cost hikes that have smashed the construction industry.

The independent agency also cast doubt on the State’s plan to secure a further $11.5bn in funding from taxes on developments and increased land values around station sites, known as value capture.

Despite forecasting a third of the project’s funding would come from the levy, the state isn’t expected to set the framework for that tax system around station precincts until next year.

Suburban Rail Loop Minister Harriet Shing said the government would continue to engage with Infrastructure Australia on its funding request and that the SRL was a critical project for Victoria.

Harriet Shing has dodged questions on how the government will pay for the SRL without more federal funding. Picture: Ian Currie

She repeatedly dodged questions on how the state would pay for the rail line if Commonwealth funding was not forthcoming.

“The Suburban Rail Loop is a project which we cannot afford not to build,” she said.

“We need to make sure that as our city grows we are not requiring the outer suburbs, those peri-urban areas, to shoulder the burden of an additional demand on housing, increasing the amount of time people spend locked in traffic.”

Ms Shing said that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King were supporters of the SRL.

Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is yet to reveal whether he would consider funding for the SRL, but the State Opposition has called for it to be paused.

Victorian opposition major projects spokesman Evan Mulholland said uncertainty around costs and benefits for the SRL East made it “completely unviable in its current form” and that it “must be paused before more damage is done”.

But the State Opposition has stopped short of saying it would dump the project if it won next year’s state election, which would require it to rip up $5.3bn in contracts already inked.

Originally published as Harriet Shing dodges questions on how state will pay for SRL without federal funding