Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Before the 2022 election, the current Prime Minister said the Labor government would refer matters to Infrastructure Australia before making commitments to nationally significant infrastructure. He actually said that in his budget-in-reply speech prior to becoming Prime Minister. Then, at the election and in the October 2022 budget, the government committed $2.2 billion to the Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop project. This was without a business case or any oversight or advice from Infrastructure Australia. This was an attempt to prop up his Labor mate Daniel Andrews ahead of the November 2022 Victorian election.

The Suburban Rail Loop has been widely criticised, not just by the Victorian Auditor-General but even by economists, such as Chris Richardson, and by 7.30 on the ABC last night. It is a project where the first stage, costing $35 billion, is currently unfunded but works by the Victorian government have commenced. The Victorian Auditor-General has been very critical of the project and just last week issued a report critical of cost blowouts. The Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office has suggested that the cost of the Suburban Rail Loop could be in excess of $125 billion. Other estimates have it reaching up to $200 billion, such as the estimate by respected economist Chris Richardson, who also said that if the Commonwealth is cancelling projects, as we've seen in the last couple of weeks, this is the 'biggest and baddest' and that it is the project he would have started with. If you're going to be cancelling infrastructure projects in this country, this is the project that Chris Richardson would have started with. The government, however, committed $2.2 billion to this project to get it started, despite knowing that the Victorian government would have to come back cap in hand to acquire another $9 billion to at least make its completion possible. Last night, on the ABC's 7.30 report experts, including the Grattan Institute, called for the program to be scrapped.

Despite these calls from Richardson, from the Grattan Institute, from auditors-general, from the public and from Labor premiers up and down the east coast, who would rather that projects in their home states hadn't been cancelled than that billions of dollars were funnelled into this soon-to-be white elephant, the Victorian government is looking to sign another $3 billion to $4 billion contract for construction, when we know what the IMF said about collaboration with states and territories. The Victorian government, as of October estimates, has still been withholding information from Infrastructure Australia about the Suburban Rail Loop project. Minister, under the government's reform of Infrastructure Australia, is it the government's intention that, instead of doing its own assessment of the Suburban Rail Loop, the agency would merely be endorsing the business case undertaken by the Victorian government agency?