Victoria’s Big Build is at a “dead end” and the government should ditch the $35bn Suburban Rail Loop and create a new business model for the economy, a think tank says.
The Australian Population Research Institute has released a report warning that Victoria’s current population trajectory, which includes eight million people in Melbourne, would be a “disaster” without new industry development.
It says the state now has an international goods trade deficit of almost $12,000 per person, meaning Victoria’s imports far exceed its exports.
This is largely due to a merchandise trade deficit, but while Victoria aimed to generate an alternative international trade surplus in services, “the sad truth is that this is not the case”.
The think tank says the Allan government should ditch the rail loop.
Even with overseas students propping up the services sector, there is still a small deficit in trade in the most recent available year of data, 2022-23.
“The state needs another direction that at least holds out the prospect of a more productive and economically sophisticated future,” it says.
“A new industry policy is a plausible, though expensive, alternative, but only if the state’s investment capacity is freed from the financially crippling burden of the Big Build.”
The report, called Labor’s Big Build Hits a Dead End, says the SRL, which is an orbital rail loop between Cheltenham and Werribee, did not consider alternative options for transforming middle Melbourne.
Herald Sun
