Tuesday, 8 March 2022

West Gate Tunnel

Dr BACH (Eastern Metropolitan) (19:31): (1785) My adjournment matter tonight concerns the chaos we saw unfolding last Thursday morning on the West Gate Freeway as a result of the West Gate Tunnel Project works going awry, and the action I seek is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure to apologise to commuters who were stuck on the freeway for hours as a result of yet more mismanagement on this botched Labor megaproject. It is as if the West Gate Tunnel Project has been doomed ever since the Labor government was forced to come up with an alternative answer to Melbourne’s traffic woes after ditching the still much needed east–west link. Now, I am old enough to remember their first alternative program, the West Gate distributor, which they promised in 2013 at the humble cost of only $500 million. What a bargain. After coming to government they replaced this with the West Gate Tunnel, a $5.5 billion program that largely replicates the second half of the east–west link which they so vehemently railed against at that election. What we have seen over the last seven years has been nothing short of farcical. This project was supposed to be finished this year—that is what the hoarding said before they took it down. Instead we will be waiting until 2025 or later.

These enormous delays have been the result of a government out of its depth. The government simply cannot manage major projects. Whether it is the endless legal battles with the unions or the total paralysis on managing contaminated soil which Mr Finn has been speaking about just today, this government’s series of failures have turned what was supposed to be a $5.5 billion project into a $10 billion project. And that is just the current prediction. It is no wonder why our credit rating was downgraded and why Victoria has developed a reputation as the worst state in the country in which to do business. This government is addicted to debt and will borrow and borrow until it wins every single vote in the state. And what we have seen most recently is the CFMEU getting up to more mischief on the building site, leaving 20 kilometres—20 kilometres!—of traffic backed up during the morning peak and motorists stuck in their cars for hours. Now, the CFMEU claims that crucial lanes on the West Gate could not be opened due to safety concerns, but that is despite WorkSafe Victoria attending earlier that day and giving the all clear.

The Premier says that he deeply regrets that this occurred, and yet he also says that when it comes to megaprojects, well, they cost what they cost and they are very much like doing a kitchen renovation. I note that the silence from the Minister for Transport Infrastructure has been deafening. Again I call on her to reach out to the motorists and commuters of Victoria and to do what she should have done last Thursday—that is, apologise.