Opposition faces ‘funding black hole’ for Suburban Rail Loop

Victoria’s opposition has been accused of “playing a cruel hoax” by backing away from a pledge to inject $8bn into the regional health system.

The state opposition has come under fire after backing away from a pledge to inject $8bn into regional Victoria’s health system.

With the health crisis holding as a key election issue, the opposition is facing a critical shortfall it had hoped to secure through shelving the Suburban Rail Loop project.

Matthew Guy last month promised to shelve the project and inject all available state funds into the struggling health sector.

It prompted Nationals leader Peter Walsh to issue a statement committing $8bn into regional healthcare.

“There was $35bn locked into one city project, but under a Liberal and Nationals government $8bn of this will be redirected to our regional hospitals to address our health crisis,” Mr Walsh said at the time.

Matthew Guy last month promised to shelve the SRL and inject all available state funds into the struggling health sector. Picture: Nicki Connolly

“One of the great things about this announcement is that under the guarantee Matthew Guy and I signed, 25 per cent of this money will go to regional hospitals.

“We need the nurses, we need the doctors, we need the health professionals as much as Melbourne.”

Mr Guy later clarified the position, saying the commitment was to spend “up to” $8bn.

The Andrews government plans to fund the project through a three-way partnership with the federal government and private enterprise.

It has so far allocated $11.8bn in capital funding towards the first stage of the project, which is expected to cost about $34bn.

With $2.36bn already committed to early works contracts there is $9.3bn left to spend.

The opposition has so far pledged almost $5bn in hard commitments including $1.5bn in regional Victoria.

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas on Wednesday accused the opposition of “playing a cruel hoax” on the people of rural and regional Victoria.

Nationals leader Peter Walsh issued a statement committing $8bn into regional healthcare. Picture: AAPA

“Matthew Guy was quite clear he was going to commit $8bn to health care across country Victoria. Today, he is walking away from that commitment because he knows that he doesn’t have that money to spend. He knows now that he has a funding black hole that he can’t fill,” Ms Thomas said.

“It’s very clear and simple to see that the funding that has been allocated to the SRL has been in the Budget papers. Either the Nationals or Liberals are incompetent or they are wilfully misleading the people of rural and regional Victoria with the figures that they have been pulling out of their back pocket with no chance of being able to deliver for country Victorians.”

Quizzed on the plan last week shadow Treasurer David Davis said the opposition hoped $2.2bn in federal funding for the project would be reprioritised.

“So there is both a component of the early works money, the federal money and any other money that’s in contingency that has not been declared, which would give us even more available money to redivert,” he said.

“We will have billions more money to spend on rebuilding our health system than the Andrews Labor government.”

Last week shadow Treasurer David Davis said under no circumstances would a Coalition government borrow more money to repair the health system. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Mr Davis said under no circumstances would a Coalition government borrow more money to repair the health system.

“We will have more capacity, more money than Daniel Andrews and his tired eight year government to redirect into health care, because we’ve made the decision to shelve the Cheltenham to Box Hill line and to redirect every available cent that we can into healthcare projects,” he said.

Transport Infrastructure minister Jacinta Allan said over the next four years less than $1bn a year had been cash flowed from the project.

“Matthew Guy’s Liberals need to come clean on their promise to cancel the Suburban Rail Loop — they say they’ll invest ‘every cent’ allocated to the project, but still can’t say how much that is,” she said.

“We all know what Matthew Guy’s Liberals will do if they get into power — cuts to emergency services and cuts to health services.

“It’s not a choice between health and infrastructure – governments must do both, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Originally published as Opposition faces ‘funding black hole’ for Suburban Rail Loop