Friday, November 8, 2024

Victoria’s secrecy stalls cash for Suburban Rail Loop

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“While Infrastructure Australia has had several additional discussions with the [Suburban Rail Loop Authority] since this time, no further material has been provided to Infrastructure Australia to allow us to start our evaluation process,” the agency said in response to a freedom of information request.

“For this reason, Infrastructure Australia has not created a draft or final review, report or other output into the SRL project.”

This was despite now Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan writing to Ms King in March 2023 reiterating calls for the additional money.

“As discussed previously, the Suburban Rail Loop East is a high priority of Victoria for Commonwealth funding support,” Ms Allan said in the letter obtained under freedom of information by The Australian Financial Review.

“As you are aware, the Victoria [sic] seeks Commonwealth support for one-third of the total cost of the SRL East (an additional $9.3 billion towards the $11.5 billion one-third contribution), noting that the delivery of this nationally significant project will occur between now and 2035.”

Taxpayers were forecast to provide the first $400 million towards the SRL this financial year, followed by $1 billion in 2025-26 and $800 million the year after, but the timeline was pushed back 12 months in the budget.

Teal independent member for Goldstein Zoe Daniel said that given the state of Victoria’s budget, it was crystal clear the rail loop would not be realised in full without substantial Commonwealth support.

“Yet it appears from this FOI that there has been no information shared by the Victorian government to Infrastructure Australia,” Ms Daniel said.

“As far as I’m concerned, no Commonwealth money should be released for this project without full analysis, transparency and all the facts. The obvious risk is that this opaque project, which is already placing a huge burden on Victorian taxpayers, will become the Commonwealth’s problem.

A Suburban Rail Loop Authority spokesperson said the project was “of national significance” and would help curb urban sprawl “by enabling 70,000 new homes”.

For Ms Daniel, however, this build-up of housing around a project that could fall flat without adequate funding is a major risk.

“I support investment in public transport, but Goldstein residents are rightly concerned they will be joined by tens of thousands of new residents, and then the promised public transport will never be completed,” she said.

Ms Daniel requested the information from Infrastructure Australia via former independent senator turned FOI consultant Rex Patrick.

Ms King is on leave and did not respond to questions.

The Financial Review in May revealed Ms King’s hand-picked review of the infrastructure pipeline warned the SRL represented a serious risk to the federal government’s 10-year budget for road and rail funding.

At the time, Ms King said the federal contribution was capped at $2.2 billion and Infrastructure Australia was undertaking an independent assessment of the project as part of the Victorian government’s request for more funds.

“No decisions have been made about further funding, and before any further requests for funding, Victoria needs to work with Infrastructure Australia so it can provide advice on the project,” she said.

Ms King also said the review would not be released until after a probe by the Australian National Audit Office into Labor’s initial $2.2 billion commitment, which was an election promise in 2022. Yet in the letter sent in response to Ms Daniels’ FOI request, the agency said the ANAO’s audit had “no bearing on Infrastructure Australia’s timeline for completing our evaluation”.

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