As part of the Allan Labor Government's public-private partnership funding arrangement to construct the North East Link, Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, has provided a taxpayer funded guarantee to cover the risk of additional funding requirements during the development, operation and maintenance phases of the project.
As of June 30 2025, the value of this guarantee was $736 million, which represents "the present value of expected future cash payment by the State under the guarantee".
Under the Labor Government, the cost of the North East Link has blown out from $10 billion in 2016, to $16 billion in 2019, to $26 billion in 2023, and this latest blowout comes as Victoria's net debt grows by more than $2 million an hour.
Shadow Treasurer Jess Wilson said: "This Treasurer's guarantee confirms Victorian taxpayers are on the hook for yet another North East Link cost blowout.
"This is a project that has gone from $10 billion in 2016, to $16 billion in 2019, to $26 billion in 2023 and now is set to blowout by a further $750 million - where will it end?
"Every dollar wasted on another Labor blowout is one fewer for frontline health, community safety, transport, education and child protection services, and one more future generations will have to repay.
"Treasurer Jaclyn Symes has been in the job almost a year yet her only stamp on the Victorian budget has been to oversee and impose more blowouts and waste on Victorian taxpayers. She must tell Victorians today exactly how much Labor's latest North East Link blowout will cost taxpayers and what services she will cut to pay for it."
