The refusal comes as the opposition warned the government against signing multi-billion-dollar contracts that may need to be ripped up if the Coalition wins the election in November – a warning the government labelled a stunt.
Victorian Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan has held a press conference about the suburban rail loop.
Allan was asked five times during a press conference on Wednesday to spell out the cost of the first two stages of the huge rail project,and how a cost-benefit analysis could be conducted without a total estimated price. She would only confirm an estimate for the project’s first stage.
The Suburban Rail Loop is planned in three stages. In the government’s business case released last year,the eastern section,from Cheltenham to Box Hill,is estimated to cost $30 billion to $34.5 billion and open about 2035. The total cost of the first stage and the second stage,which would run from Box Hill to Melbourne Airport,would be between $30.7 billion and $50.5 billion,the business case said,and would be completed by 2053. There is no timeline and no estimated cost for the third stage from the airport to Werribee.
At the price cited in the business case,the first two stages of the project would reap $1.10 to $1.70 for each dollar spent,providing value for money.
But Allan refused on Wednesday to repeat the $30.7 billion to $50.5 billion estimate,even though Premier Daniel Andrews last week had said he did not have the figure on hand and reporters should ask her. She gave an estimate for stage one but not stage two.
The government says building the eastern section of the loop would still be worthwhileJason South
The Parliamentary Budget Office last week.
The deputy premier,who is expected to succeed Andrews as Labor leader,would not commit to detailing an estimate for the second stage before the election. Instead,Allan said it was “pretty reasonable” for future governments to do detailed planning on the second stage “to work through and make decisions about proceeding with[stage two]“.
The refusal to quote an estimate poses a new question about the project’s viability,given the cost-benefit analysis was,in part,premised on benefits derived linking Cheltenham to Melbourne Airport.
Shadow Treasurer David Davis has written to the Department of Premier and Cabinet opposing the signing of contracts before the November election,after the Liberals last week pledged to shelve the first stage of the orbital rail loop from Cheltenham to Box Hill,which is set to cost about $35 billion.
Allan dismissed Davis’ correspondence as a stunt,saying “a quick Google search by the Liberal Party … would find out that we’ve clearly said major contracts won’t be signed until 2023.”
Wielding a photograph of former Liberal premier Dennis Napthine signing the contract for the East West Link two months before the 2014 election,Allan accused the Coalition of hypocrisy. Andrews paid more than $1 billion to cancel the contract when he won the election,after promising it would cost nothing to do so.
Davis on Wednesday ignored questions about the East West Link and insisted caretaker conventions – the period about a month before an election when governments stop making decisions unilaterally – should be invoked early for major projects.
“Given this commitment and the fact that the election is now just 94 days away,I write to respectfully request no further contracts be entered into by the current government ... prior to the November 26 election,” he said in the letter.
Suburban Rail LoopSupplied
The shadow treasurer said he did not trust the government’s commitment to wait until after the election to sign contracts,arguing “we are concerned they might do something stupid … and they might spend a large amount of that money on binding contracts”.
“With the project not scheduled to be completed for another 13 years,it would be complete bloody-mindedness for Daniel Andrews and Labor to sign any further contracts”.
The opposition has not ruled out building the loop in the future,but said money allocated to the project over the next few years – the government intends to spend about $11 billion on the first stage – would be diverted to building hospitals and into other health spending.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy’s case was backed by the,which indicated the first two stages would cost more than double the projections that Andrews took to the 2018 election after the project was planned in secret with consultants from PwC and Labor-aligned bureaucrats.
The Coalition’s campaign against the rail loop,which it warns will worsen Victoria’s nation-leading debt level,has given Guy a much-needed point of difference with Labor after he spent a.
The policy to shelve the rail loop allows the opposition to emphasise its focus on the immediate concerns of pandemic-weary Victorians,many of whom live far away from the proposed rail line,rather than a transport link that won’t be in operation for more than a decade. However,it risks a backlash from voters in marginal eastern suburbs seats where new stations will be built and property prices will rise.
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