It is time for Malcolm Turnbull to come clean on the Coalition’s plan for cities and infrastructure in Victoria.
With Victorian Liberal MPs being called in for a secret meeting on November 10 to try and quell a stoush over the $1.5 billion previously locked for East West Link, we once again have to question whether the government is truly dedicated to funding public transport, or just to taking selfies on trains and buses.
“Malcolm Turnbull is trying to be all things to all people when it comes to supporting our cities, but now he has to put up or shut up,” Andrew Giles, Member for Scullin and chair of Labor’s cities committee, said.
“The choice is clear. He can either support productive infrastructure investment based on the evidence, or he can listen to self-interested MPs returning us to the days of ‘roads of National Party importance’.”
“Melbourne’s growth needs Labor’s innovative approach to infrastructure funding – investing based on business cases and leveraging private sector investment,” he said.
Liberal Dan Tehan’s opinion article in the Herald Sun on Monday once again highlights the deep divisions within the Coalition when it comes to major infrastructure projects.
We need to stop the rhetoric and look for a bipartisan, evidence based approach when looking at something as important to Victoria and Australia’s future as infrastructure funding. Old school pork barrelling by federal Coalition MPs in Victoria is unacceptable.
A Labor government will focus on evidence rather than optics when funding infrastructure.
Labor will also create a $10 billion infrastructure financing facility to unlock billions of dollars of private sector investment.