Eastern suburbs to pay for Labor’s $5 billion western half link
Yesterday’s damning Auditor-General’s report doesn’t only show how foolish and dishonest it was for Daniel Andrews to say he would scrap East West Link for no cost.
It also shows how foolish and costly it is for Mr Andrews to announce this week that he will build the western half of an East West Link (now called the Western Distributor), but without ever building the eastern half.
It may not be obvious to Mr Andrews, but a second link between Melbourne’s east and west will only work properly if it is built all the way.
Yesterday’s Auditor-General’s report confirms that the benefits from having a link that goes all the way from east to west are far greater than having a link that only goes part way. That’s why the Napthine government committed to both the eastern and the western halves of East West Link.
However, while Mr Andrews now wants his Western Distributor to be the western half, he has thrown away $1.1 billion to stop the eastern half from being built.
As a result, eastern suburbs residents forced to crawl along Alexandra Parade to get to the airport will be slugged CityLink tolls on their trips for at least another 12 years to help pay for a $5 billion road that only runs between the Westgate Freeway and Footscray Road.
And south-eastern motorists who use the Monash and CityLink, many of whom will get no time saving from the project, will be forced to pay an extra $40,000 in tolls over 12 years.