Labor just cannot be trusted

Over the past few weeks, Victorians have learned a great deal about just how dishonest and incompetent this 10-year-old Labor Government has become.

Premier Jacinta Allan continues to pursue the Suburban Rail Loop, a vanity project that will benefit only a few voters in Labor’s must-hold marginal seats and do nothing to help ease the massive backlog of desperately needed infrastructure in the growing suburbs I represent in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, or in the equally neglected west and south-east.

We learnt last week that the Premier has also made it more expensive to terminate this project which, if the rumours coming out of the Labor Party are true, will happen after her caucus colleagues finally decide that a change of leadership is the only way out of this mess.

The Premier’s sweetheart deal for the Suburban Rail Loop includes compensation that go way above and beyond standard Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) terms.

This will see Victorian taxpayers, long-suffering as they are, pay even more if and when this project is scrapped.

Infrastructure Australia, the Victorian Auditor-General, and even their Labor mates in Canberra have said the Suburban Rail Loop doesn’t stack up, but this government just doesn’t get it.

This is just another example of Labor making long-term financial commitments without transparency, accountability, or a viable plan to deliver.

This isn’t a one off.

The Metro Tunnel, originally budgeted between $9 billion and $11 billion, has now surged to $15 billion.

And what improvement in services are we getting for this hefty price tag?

None.

Labor told Victorians this tunnel would transform the network. Instead, it’s a $15 billion black hole delivering no benefit to commuters in Melbourne’s north.

In fact, because of this blow out in cost, we are actually getting less services across the network and promised upgrades cancelled or put on the never-never.

This isn’t just mismanagement – it’s deception. They’ve lied about the cost, they’ve lied about the benefits, and Victorians are the ones paying the price.

It is clear that Labor cannot be trusted to deliver the infrastructure they love to promise but hate to be held accountable for.

Just about every project they’ve announced has been hit with mismanagement, with rorts, and with dodgy union corruption.

That is why the Opposition, the Liberals and Nationals are calling for a full, independent audit of all Labor infrastructure projects, starting with the Metro Tunnel and Suburban Rail Loop, to get to the bottom of what Victorians have really paid – and what they’ve been promised.

Labor can’t manage money, Labor can’t manage major projects, and Victorians are paying the price.

Evan Mulholland MP is the Liberal Member for Northern Metropolitan Region and Shadow Minister for Major Projects.