Victorian Opposition will privatise the Port of Melbourne to pay for transport infrastructure if it wins office
November 19, 2013
The Victorian Labor Party has pledged to lease the Port of Melbourne long-term to pay for transport infrastructure upgrades that include Westgate Freeway ramps to the port.
With a little more than a year to go, the State election got into gear with Labor leader Daniel Andrews nominating congestion as a primary issue and unveiling ‘Project 10,000’, its response to the State Government’s $8 billion East-West Link freeway tunnel plan.
“We have listened to business and heard how productivity and growth has been hampered by bottlenecks at level crossings and long delays on major roads,” Andrews says.
The showpiece, like similar ‘asset recycling’ moves in Queensland and New South Wales, is the use of an estimated $5-$6 billion from the port lease sale on increasing capacity on the Tullamarine and Westgate freeways, upgrading 50 most dangerous level-crossings and initial work on the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel.
The cash would be the basis a Victorian Transport Building Fund (VTBF) that Labor plans to create if it wins office.
Opposition treasury spokesman Tim Pallas says guidelines would be developed to align the work of the VTBF’s with Infrastructure Victoria – an independent advisory body announced by Victorian Labor in the Plan for Jobs and Growth it released last year.
The $400-$500 million Westgate Freeway off-ramp and route to the port, called the West Gate Distributor, will be tolled.
The proposed partly elevated route will zigzag along Hyde, Francis and Whitehall streets to an upgraded Shepherd Bridge to the port precinct.
Labor estimates 5,000 trucks a day would then avoid crossing the Westgate Bridge.
Andrews ruled out scrapping any East-West Link contracts if they were signed before the election.
Labor says Project 10,000 will widen the Tullamarine Freeway to six lanes, streamline traffic on Hoddle Street using a traffic management system and invest $2 billion to improve suburban and country roads.
