Anthony Albanese has weighed into the public dispute between Victorian Labor and Melbourne Airport over an airport rail link in the city, demanding the private operators “get serious” to deliver the project.
As the Allan Labor government blamed Melbourne Airport for the minimum four-year delay to the project that would see the airport connect to Victoria’s regional and metropolitan train network, the Prime Minister backed his state Labor colleagues.
“Well I’d say this, the airport should get serious about actually getting things done,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday.
“At the moment there isn’t an agreement with the airport. I’m familiar with airports, from time to time they think they operate in a way that forgets about their social licence.”
Mr Albanese shut down suggestions the federal government could intervene to speed up the delivery of Melbourne Airport Rail.
“We don’t control Melbourne Airport, it’s commonwealth land which is leased,” he said. “That privatisation decision was made some time ago.”
The Prime Minister flew into Melbourne in the aftermath of Jacinta Allan’s first state budget – which revealed Victoria is on track to reach almost $190bn of debt by 2027-28 – to announce the federal government had allocated an additional $3.25bn to the state’s North East Link, bringing its contribution to the project to $5bn.
He said he chose to pour the extra funding to the North East Link over Melbourne Airport Rail because the project “is here, it’s real and it’s now”, as he remained tight-lipped on whether the Suburban Rail Loop would also receive extra cash in next week’s federal budget.
Last December, the Premier announced the North East Link – estimated in 2016 to cost $10bn before that figure was revised to $15.8bn in 2019 – would now cost $26.1bn.
Mr Albanese said infrastructure was “costing more … and that is right around the nation, and one of the problems that occurred that Catherine King inherited was a pipeline of projects that had unfunded or underfunded projects and contributions”.
“We believe this $5bn is an appropriate contribution by the commonwealth to what is a vital nation building project,” the Prime Minister said.
The Premier spruiked the project and welcomed the extra funds, but unlike the Prime Minister walked off and did not answer any questions.
Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the state needed Melbourne Airport Rail ahead of other projects in the Big Build like the Suburban Rail Loop.
He also raised questions as to why the federal government had chosen to throw money at the North East Link.
“Let it be clear – $3.25bn to the North East Link won’t even cover a fifth of the blowouts on that project,” Mr Pesutto said.
“There just seems to be a lack of direction, a lack of unified vision between state Labor and federal Labor over just what projects are being funded.”
The Liberal leader said the money would be better spent on resolving the Melbourne Airport Rail dispute, which centres around the private operator wanting the station to be built underground, while the state government is insisting on a cheaper, above-ground design.
The Australian Newspaper
