Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has pulled the puppets strings on Anthony Albanese to secure $2 billion in federal funding for his pet Suburban Rail Loop project.
This project, to cost an estimated $120 billion and take decades to build has not even been assessed by Infrastructure Australia (IA) - the body he established as Infrastructure Minister to take the politics out of infrastructure.
Stage one of the project alone will cost $34.5 billion and won't be built until 2035, at least 5 election cycles away.
Mr Albanese must today explain why he has committed $2.5 billion to a project that has not been assessed by IA, whilst he refuses to commit to the East West Link which has been assessed.
This decision directly contradicts Anthony Albanese's position on infrastructure funding, stating only weeks ago that "Labor will make sure that those investments really stack up using the Infrastructure Australia model that I established."
During the 2019 Federal election campaign, then Shadow Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese promised $10 billion towards the project.
Three years later and in a humiliating backdown, that commitment that been cut to just $2.5 billion - just 7 per cent of the estimated total cost of the eastern section of the loop between Cheltenham and Box Hill.
This demonstrates that Anthony Albanese doesn't believe in this project and is only funding it because his puppet master, Daniel Andrews, has made him.
Only a Morrison Liberal Government has a real plan to build a stronger economy and a stronger future.
