Thursday, 18 August 2022

Suburban Rail Loop

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (10:04): I think the chamber and the community should be aware of the bombshell report from the Parliamentary Budget Office today which shows that the Cheltenham to Box Hill rail line and the further extension, the second section in the north, has a total cost, a capital cost, according to the PBO, and these figures may be only part of the story, of $125 billion—that is the estimate—and $75 billion of operating costs, coming to more than $200 billion for just two-thirds of what was originally promised at $50 billion. This is an enormous cost blowout, a cost blowout that is testament to Daniel Andrews’s and Jacinta Allan’s incompetence and failure to manage. Two hundred billion dollars—four times the original estimate for just two-thirds of the project—

Ms Terpstra interjected.

Mr DAVIS: You can go and read the Parliamentary Budget Office document yourself. I think it underestimates part of it. We know that there is already an escalation in the first stage—Box Hill to Cheltenham—of $2 billion now, before they have dug a thing. There is already a $2 billion escalation on that. Every single project that this government touches, whether it is the West Gate Tunnel, whether it is level crossings, whether it is the Metro or the heart hospital, which is costing four times what the project was costed at originally and is four years late—what an incompetent government. Who would trust them with that? That is why we will redivert the money to health.