{"id":72109,"date":"2024-06-24T15:09:09","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T05:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=72109"},"modified":"2024-06-24T15:09:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T05:09:14","slug":"report-suggests-labors-big-build-has-hit-a-dead-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=72109","title":{"rendered":"Report suggests Labor\u2019s Big Build has hit a \u2018dead end\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victoria\u2019s Big Build is at a \u201cdead end\u201d and the government should ditch the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldsun.com.au\/news\/victoria\/major-suburban-rail-loop-works-could-be-delayed-or-deferred-due-to-funding-and-state-debt\/news-story\/0f5a57b95ec484cb889f267764ca743d\">$35bn Suburban Rail Loop<\/a>&nbsp;and create a new business model for the economy, a think tank says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Australian Population Research Institute has released a report warning that Victoria\u2019s current population trajectory, which includes eight million people in Melbourne, would be a \u201cdisaster\u201d without new industry development.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It says the state now has an international goods trade deficit of almost $12,000 per person, meaning Victoria\u2019s imports far exceed its exports.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is largely due to a merchandise trade deficit, but while Victoria aimed to generate an alternative international trade surplus in services, \u201cthe sad truth is that this is not the case\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1023\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-177.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-177.jpeg 1023w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-177-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-177-768x577.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The think tank says the Allan government should ditch the rail loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even with overseas students propping up the services sector, there is still a small deficit in trade in the most recent available year of data, 2022-23.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe state needs another direction that at least holds out the prospect of a more productive and economically sophisticated future,\u201d it says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA new industry policy is a plausible, though expensive, alternative, but only if the state\u2019s investment capacity is freed from the financially crippling burden of the Big Build.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report, called Labor\u2019s Big Build Hits a Dead End, says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldsun.com.au\/news\/victoria\/bombshell-report-finds-suburban-rail-loop-projected-to-blow-out-by-16bn\/news-story\/03e8c87786b4b1aa39af9e7d9fde4adc\">the SRL,<\/a>\u00a0which is an orbital rail loop between Cheltenham and Werribee, did not consider alternative options for transforming middle Melbourne.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Herald Sun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The $35bn Suburban Rail Loop should be ditched to avoid a disastrous situation, a think tank says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":57963,"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":[47,8160],"tags":[993],"class_list":["post-72109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","category-suburban-rail-loop","tag-melbourne"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72109","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72113,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72109\/revisions\/72113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}