Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has ended at times tense press conference with “we’re done”, before heading away from the microphones as a reporter attempted to ask further questions about the Suburban Rail Loop.
Ms Allan was in Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s north on Thursday for a TAFE-related announcement, but quickly found herself on the receiving end of a barrage of questions about the rail project.
The Albanese government revealed a day earlier it was finally going to release the $2.2 billion it had committed to the project at the last federal election, which still falls well short of the $11.8 billion “matching contribution” the state government is seeking.
Ms Allan spent about 20 minutes answering questions about the Suburban Rail Loop after the federal government flagged more work needed to be done around value capture for the project, before attention turned to other state government-related matters reporters were keen to press the Premier on.
Jacinta Allan faced a barrage of questions about the Suburban Rail Loop during a press conference on Thursday. Picture: Sky News Australia
When one reporter later tried to ask a further question about the project, Ms Allan responded with: “No, I’ve finished on the SRL”, but ended up responding to the query about when she found out the money would be coming from the federal government.
“The confirmation came from (federal infrastructure and transport) Minister King to (Suburban Rail Loop) Minister Shing yesterday,” she said.
After further unrelated questions, another reporter put it to the Premier, who was ready to wrap up the roughly 40 minute long press conference: “Sorry to bring it back to the SRL, just two questions”.
“No, we’re done,” Ms Allan said before indicating she needed to scoot off to other appointments.
Sky News
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