Victoria’s Labor government is being accused of hypocrisy over its refusal to release the business case for the $5.3bn Western Distributor toll road proposed by developer, Transurban.
While in opposition, the party had criticised the former Coalition government for signing contracts for the East West Link toll road, since abandoned by Labor, before the business case was made public.
The Transurban proposal aims to relieve pressure on Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge by connecting the West Gate Freeway to CityLink via a tunnel, a second river crossing and an elevated freeway along Footscray Road.
In April the treasurer, Tim Pallas, told reporters: “We promised to be open and transparent on all new projects. Our rigorous guidelines mean this proposal can be properly and fairly assessed.”
However Pallas now says the business case for the road will only be revealed once the project enters the final stage of negotiations with Transurban, in December. He also said communities most affected by the road’s construction would not be consulted until this late stage.
While in opposition, Pallas and his colleagues criticised the then Napthine government for signing the East West Link toll road contracts while in caretaker mode, and before making the business case for the project public.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, scrapped the East West Link shortly after being elected in November, citing a lack of transparency around the project as one of the key reasons for doing so. In a “lock-up” press conference, Andrews then released the previously secretive business case to journalists.
But Pallas told radio 3AW on Tuesday it was too early to release more details about the Western Distributor, and insisted if the proposal did not stack up, the government would not proceed with it.
“We’re still – can I say – tyre-kicking with the proposal to satisfy ourselves that we should even bother getting involved in negotiations,” he told 3AW morning host Neil Mitchell.
“The public will get the information that is important to put in the public domain … we’re not afraid of a dialogue with the community.”
However, the government has already had the proposal reviewed by an independent panel, who recommended proceeding to the final negotiation stages.
If it builds the road, which would see trucks charged $13 and cars $3 per trip, Transurban would be granted an extension of its contract to charge tolls on the existing CityLink until 2050.
The opposition treasury spokesman, Michael O’Brien, told Fairfax the government was guilty of “gross hypocrisy”.
“The government wants to sign up Victorians to 15 years of extra tolls on CityLink yet those same road users aren’t being shown a business case or any further details about this road,” he said. “They are guilty of gross hypocrisy.”
The Greens MP for the western metropolitan area, Colleen Hartland, said she was “amazed” the business case would not be ready for public release given the project was tipped to enter final negotiation stages within months.
“It overshadows the government’s commitment to be open and transparent dramatically,” she told Guardian Australia.
“The Western Distributor might fix the problem that we have with trucks, but we don’t know, because we’ve not been told, we’ve not been shown the business case.”
