OPINION: Michael DiFabrizio
“THIS project will be delivered in full by a Labor government.”
That was what then-premier Daniel Andrews told reporters in February 2015, when announcing funding for the Murray Basin Rail Project.
Standing next to him at the Yelta press conference was the project’s top minister, current premier Jacinta Allan.
As we now know, the rail project was not “delivered in full”.
Perhaps it speaks to Mr Andrews’ careful political judgement that he qualified the statement with “by a Labor government” – not specifying it would be his, and hypothetically leaving the door open for a Labor government in 100 years to finish it off.
But for all intents and purposes, this was a broken promise.
A broken promise overseen by Ms Allan.
The five-stage project’s $440 million budget, funded jointly by the state and federal governments, ran out in 2019 while on stage two. The initial expected completion date was late 2018.
Some of the remaining works were carried out only after both governments tipped more money in.
Ms Allan said last year the business case from 10 years earlier needed a “reset” because it “didn’t actually address the needs of the network then, or indeed now”.
Even if we accept that, Ms Allan’s great legacy to north-west Victoria in her time holding the portfolios covering transport infrastructure was a project that went past its deadline, was over-budget and still today isn’t delivered in full.
And make no mistake, that one project is the sole legacy.
In 2020, the website for the government’s then-$70 billion “Victoria’s Big Build” did not contain a single project within 300km of Mildura – until after this newspaper reported on the fact. (Some time later, the Murray Basin Rail Project was seemingly tacked on retrospectively.)
That as a minister she was comfortable building $70 billion – with a b – in transport infrastructure projects, without any of them helping improve the daily lives of people in Sunraysia, shows Ms Allan has some work to do.
Mildura voters can’t have been clearer that they expect better from the party she represents, either.
At the last election, only 10 months ago, Labor recorded its worst ever primary vote in the seat – just 6.5 per cent of ballots gave them a “1” vote.
And while former independent MP Ali Cupper can dispute how her relationship with Mr Andrews was framed by The Nationals, ultimately Mildura voters chose to elect someone to sit in Opposition and not on the crossbench. That, too, is a rebuke of the government.
Ms Allan, the Member for Bendigo East, has a choice to try and address this dissatisfaction, to show that she isn’t just a premier for Melbourne and its nearby regional centres.
But first, she’ll have to change tracks from what her ministerial record suggests.
