Speaking from a suburban shopping mall turned construction site in Melbourne’s east, Jacinta Allan made clear where her priorities lie.
“Works are powering ahead here,” the premier told reporters in Box Hill, the site of one of six new stations in the government’s electorally popular yet contentious and expensive Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project, on Monday.
“It’s exactly the project our growing city and state needs – particularly in the Suburban Rail Loop East corridor.”
It was a not-so-veiled dig at the operators of Melbourne airport, who late on Sunday night informed her via text message they would be dropping their opposition to an above-ground station at the airport.
The following morning – after the airport’s chief executive did the rounds on breakfast radio – Allan’s office received a letter confirming their position.
The letter, Guardian Australia understands, also made clear they hoped the project would be fast-tracked and completed by 2030 – in time for the opening of its third runway.
State government sources are quick to point out the airport’s plans for a third runway are still being considered by the federal government, and perhaps was the impetus for the operator’s “compromise”.
But the timing could not be worse for the premier.
In May 2023, the state government paused early works on the rail link to the airport, as their federal colleagues conducted a review of infrastructure funding, blind-siding some state MPs.
A year later – and despite being given the green light from their federal counterparts – the state’s budget did not provide any funding for the project.
The treasurer, Tim Pallas, said he expected the station would be delayed for at least four years, citing the impasse with the airport operators. (The state government wanted a cheaper station above ground while the airport insisted on constructing a costlier one underground.)
At the time, Pallas threatened to build a train station at Avalon airport, which is closer to Geelong, describing Melbourne airport as holding the taxpayer to “ransom”.
It got so messy between the two parties that a mediator was appointed by the federal government, who last month delivered a report recommending the station be built above ground.
But Allan on Monday said the airport had missed its chance to fast-track the project.
“The consequence of the unreasonable position that has been taken for a number of years now is that this project has been delayed by four years. That’s the simple fact,” she said.
She said when the federal and state governments had each committed $5bn to the project in 2019, they had set the “very aggressive timeline” for it to be completed in 10 years, and that could no longer be met.
Allan said Melbourne airport had also “added another unresolved issue into the mix” by stating it was seeking compensation from the federal government for land acquisition.
As the government paused the airport, it went full throttle into SRL East. Last year, it signed a contract worth $3.6bn for the construction of 16km twin tunnels between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley.
The Guardian
The Melbourne Airport CEO is clever to call out the government and the lies from Jacinta. The government was using the airport railway station location standoff as a means to delay the work to cover the issues with the budget and massive cost overruns on projects which are not as valuable like the North East Link.
Melbourne Airport has not put massive pressure back on the government who have admitted they cannot proceed. This is another very bad mess from the ALP.
This appears to be the case. The airport has called out her lies and delays and she is now the person in the hot seat.
The big losers here are Victorian’s. they want a service to the airport and could have been the underway in the Kennett era. The feds offered to pay back then and he stopped it from being delivered because of the deal he did with trans urban.