{"id":194790,"date":"2025-04-03T09:09:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T23:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=194790"},"modified":"2025-04-03T09:09:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T23:09:59","slug":"pitch-to-ditch-rail-loop-risks-referendum-on-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=194790","title":{"rendered":"Pitch to ditch rail loop risks ‘referendum on trains’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The coalition’s “calculated” move to scrap spending on a controversial rail project in a key battleground state has sparked calls for a broader discussion on how federal governments fund infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If elected, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would cancel $2.2 billion in federal funding for the first stage of Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop and spend it instead on a long-awaited train line to the city’s airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political scientist Zareh Ghazarian said Mr Dutton’s move was a big political gamble and could turn the election into a quasi-referendum on the rail loop for Victorian voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The coalition feels it’s going to be a vote-turner,” the Monash University senior lecturer told AAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is a calculated decision to stop one project that’s been the subject of a lot of controversy and redirect to another project which seemingly enjoys a lot of support across the community.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2024 survey<\/a> of 1000 Melburnians by Ipsos showed 72 per cent supported building a rail line to the airport, compared to 58 per cent for the rail loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Dutton’s path to victory on May 3 relies on winning outer suburban or mortgage-belt seats, with the route for the $34.5 billion eastern section of the loop passing through marginal electorates the coalition is targeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state Labor government has claimed a mandate to build the rail loop after winning elections in 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But independent infrastructure expert Marion Terrill said it was a “sound decision” for the coalition to back away from the loop after Infrastructure Australia called for “exit strategies” to be developed as cost concerns mount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It looks like it’s going to be a major money sink, even if nothing goes wrong,” Ms Terrill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, she warned the airport project also comes with its own risks and more detail is needed on costings, risks and stakeholder engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infrastructure Partnerships Australia chief executive Adrian Dwyer called for a wider discussion about how federal governments fund transport investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The real debate to be had goes to how the federal government moves to replace the retreating tide of state investment,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That uncertainty will have a knock-on effect to investor confidence across Victoria, according to the McKell Institute’s state executive director Rebecca Thistleton, who was previously an adviser to the state Labor government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We need both major parties to be talking about actual plans for infrastructure, not just cherry picking projects based on a particular day of whose votes it is they’re trying to get,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shepparton News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If elected, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would cancel $2.2 billion in federal funding for the first stage of Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":194791,"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":[35,8493,47,8160],"tags":[16164,993,10648,8],"class_list":["post-194790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-election","category-rail-news","category-suburban-rail-loop","tag-australia-votes-2025","tag-melbourne","tag-peter-dutton","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194790","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=194790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194793,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194790\/revisions\/194793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/194791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}