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How west meets east via transport links is vital to Melbourne’s prosperity
GREATER Melbourne will grow by 1.8 million people between 2011 and 2031, more than any other city in Australia. That makes it vital to plan and deliver the new freeways, railways and other infrastructure that will keep it an efficient, productive and pleasant place to live.
Indeed, such work is more important now than ever before, because the relative economic importance of cities has increased so much.
In 1911, 60 per cent of Australians lived in regional and rural areas. Today, 89 per cent of us live in cities. And cities have an economic importance that hugely exceeds their share of our land mass. Work by the Grattan Institute found that 80 per cent of the dollar value of all goods and services in Australia is produced on just 0.2 per cent of our land mass, nearly all of it in our cities.
The combined CBDs of Sydney and Melbourne — just 7.1 square kilometres — create almost 10 per cent of the total value of Australia’s goods and services. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull noted shortly after coming to office that liveable, vibrant cities are absolutely critical to our prosperity — and transport infrastructure is a key part of that.
People need to get to and from work. Freight needs to move efficiently around the city.
It’s also key to quality of life: less time stuck in traffic means more time doing what you want to be doing.
Better connecting Melbourne’s eastern and western suburbs has long been recognised as a priority.
In 2006 the Bracks Labor government appointed businessman and transport expert Sir Rod Eddington to come up with a plan. He recommended the construction of what became known as the East West Link.
The Baillieu and Napthine governments acted upon that recommendation and contracts were signed in 2014 — only to be torn up when the Andrews Labor Government came to power in November 2014. About a billion dollars was wasted in the process.
So once again we are faced with the challenge of how best to connect the east and west of Melbourne.
Without action, the cost of congestion in the Melbourne-Geelong area alone is projected to increase from $3 billion in 2011 to $9 billion in 2031.
If the Andrews Government, or any subsequent Victorian government, were to proceed with the original East West Link, the Turnbull Government would support that project.
But we also stand ready to look at the plan announced late last year by the Andrews Government to build the Western Distributor.
It would include a tunnel under Yarraville and a second crossing over the Maribyrnong River to take pressure off the West Gate Bridge. It also expands the West Gate Freeway from four lanes each way to six lanes each way between the M80 and Williamstown Rd.
The business case cites the Eddington study’s recommendation for “investment in major rail and road capacity linking Melbourne’s east and west”. It says the project aims to deliver “strong connections to Melbourne’s southeast economic corridor” for the fast-growing western suburbs.
The Victorian Government is currently negotiating with motorway company Transurban, which proposed the idea to the Andrews Government soon after it came to power.
The $5.5 billion estimated project cost will come partly from tolls on the Western Distributor, partly from extending the CityLink toll period and partly from government.
Announcing the project recently, Premier Andrews said he expects some of the $1.8 billion or so in government contributions to be Commonwealth money.
The Commonwealth received no advance notice of that announcement; we only got the confidential business case several days later.
Before deciding whether to put in Commonwealth money, the terms of the deal with Transurban need to be finalised and the project evaluated by Infrastructure Australia to ensure there’s value for money to Commonwealth taxpayers.
We need to know how much money the Victorian Government is seeking and whether it’s a fair split between the two levels of government.
We must explore how the money would be provided and whether there is potential for an innovative financing structure — like the concessional loan provided for the WestConnex project in Sydney.
There is another very important consideration: whether the upgrade to the Monash Freeway, promised as part of this project, provides enough benefit for people in Melbourne’s east.
If people in the east face new tolls but the project largely benefits people in the west, how is that fair?
So the Turnbull Government wants to see whether this plan delivers on what is urgently required: additional capacity on the Monash. Melbourne is one of the world’s great cities but to reach its potential it needs better east-west transport connectivity.
Political manoeuvring between the Victorian and Commonwealth governments is not the way to solve the problem.
The Turnbull Government will not be writing a blank cheque — but we aim to work constructively with the Andrews Government on Melbourne’s transport and infrastructure needs.
PAUL FLETCHER IS THE FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BRADFIELD AND THE MINISTER FOR MAJOR PROJECTS, TERRITORIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
