{"id":174640,"date":"2025-02-11T12:29:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T02:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=174640"},"modified":"2025-03-04T19:01:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T09:01:30","slug":"federal-mps-furious-over-allans-suburban-rail-loop-blackmail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=174640","title":{"rendered":"Federal MPs furious over Allan\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop \u2018blackmail\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Anthony Albanese\u2019s government is feuding with Premier Jacinta Allan over billions in infrastructure spending for big ticket projects to sway voters who are switching off Labor, as the cash-strapped state holds out for extra Suburban Rail Loop funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stand-off over project funding has prompted Victorian federal MPs alarmed by the 17 per cent swing against Allan in the Werribee byelection to demand she cease \u201cblackmailing\u201d the prime minister for extra money for her flagship project.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Premier Jacinta Allan with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last May.CREDIT: JOE ARMAO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Victorian federal MPs and ministers who fear the Allan government\u2019s unpopularity will fuel a federal election rout in Melbourne are pushing for the state to agree to different transport projects to counter Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buoyed by the byelection results, Dutton said on Monday that he is determined to reverse Coalition fortunes in a state where about six seats could prove decisive in a deadlocked contest between the major parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four sources briefed on tense negotiations between the prime minister, Infrastructure Minister Catherine King and Allan said the Victorians were refusing to sign on to a broader package of projects unless the federal money included a top-up for the $35 billion first stage of the contentious rail loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sources \u2013 from the state and federal governments, none of whom could speak publicly about confidential talks \u2013 said Allan was standing firm on the SRL in the face of federal reluctance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is expected that a previous $2.2 billion SRL allocation from federal Labor will soon flow into state coffers, but federal officials are resistant to Allan\u2019s demands for billions more. The stand-off is delaying a broader deal that could free up funds for more immediate projects such as an airport rail and upgrades to the Western Highway and other roads, which federal Labor MPs view as crucial in a tightening contest with Liberals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King\u2019s office declined to comment and Allan\u2019s office released a statement saying only: \u201cThe premier is continuing to discuss Victoria getting its fair share of infrastructure funding for all projects \u2013 including the Suburban Rail Loop \u2013 with the Prime Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Age<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four sources briefed on tense negotiations between the prime minister, Infrastructure Minister Catherine King and Allan said the Victorians were refusing to sign on to a broader package of projects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":174336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,8160],"tags":[10458,8634,993,8],"class_list":["post-174640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-suburban-rail-loop","tag-cathering-king","tag-jacinta-allan","tag-melbourne","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174642,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174640\/revisions\/174642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/174336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}