Albanese caves in to Greens pressure and drops his support for WestConnex

Anthony Albanese told media yesterday he wished he had never made the decision to fund WestConnex as he desperately sought absolution from Greens voters in his inner city seat of Grayndler.

When Minister for Infrastructure in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Government, Albanese authorised $1.8 billion of funding for Westconnex.

But he’s now performed an astonishing political backflip.

WestConnex will deliver real benefits to millions of people in western and southwestern Sydney – giving much improved connections to the CBD, inner west, airport and port. 

Travel time from Parramatta to Sydney Airport, for example, will drop by 40 minutes.

The project widens and extends both the M4 and M5 motorways and joins them together in the middle to form a continuous, free flowing motorway.  It will take traffic off local residential streets, including large sections in underground tunnels.

Recent enhancements to WestConnex are designed to improve the performance of the overall Sydney motorway network, for example, by adding a connection for a future Western Harbour Tunnel.

But what Albanese cares about is holding his inner city seat in the face of pressure from the Greens.

We see the same pattern from Labor all around the country.  They cannot be trusted to deliver on major infrastructure projects because they are terrified of losing inner city votes to the Greens.

In Melbourne the Andrews Labor Government tore up signed contracts to build the East West Link.  The Victorian Auditor-General found that this reckless act cost taxpayers over $1.1 billion.

Now it seems Albanese might want to do the same thing in Sydney – making his stunt of asking the Commonwealth Auditor-General to review WestConnex look pretty hollow.

Sydney is a city of 4.8 million people – projected to rise to over 6 million people by 2031 according to Infrastructure Australia, the body set up by Mr Albanese. 

The Turnbull and Baird Governments are working to deliver the vital infrastructure our growing city needs – so people can get to and from work as quickly as possible; freight can move efficiently around the city; and we all benefit from less time stuck in traffic and more time doing what we want to be doing.

WestConnex is a key part of that plan.

Mr Albanese can occupy himself turning somersaults in his quest for inner city votes.

The Turnbull and Baird Governments will focus on meeting the infrastructure needs of the whole of Sydney.