Tuesday, 30 August 2022

Adjournment

Ms TIERNEY (Western Victoria—Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education, Minister for Agriculture) (20:02): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Suburban Rail Loop

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (20:02): (2085) My adjournment matter tonight is for the attention of the Treasurer, and it concerns the state government’s allocation of money to the Suburban Rail Loop. It is clear that money has been allocated to the Suburban Rail Loop, nearly $10 billion initially—about $2 billion of early works and indeed about $2.2 billion of federal money to the Suburban Rail Loop. The cost of the Suburban Rail Loop was initially, in three parts, to be $50 billion, but it is very clear that the state government’s investment case of sorts suggests that it will be nearer $35 billion, and that is before the cost overruns start.

But the Parliamentary Budget Office work that we released last week makes it clear that the total cost of the first two stages of the Suburban Rail Loop will come to $125 billion for capital and $75 billion for recurrent costs over the first period of the project—$200 billion. That is before the calculations start on the third section, and you can well imagine that costing another $70 billion-odd. It could easily be $270 billion over that period. Understanding the cost structure of this is important for the community. I note that the investment case of sorts is dependent on the first two stages being completed. The PBO’s recent work shows that the benefit-cost ratio is a negative figure, 0.6 or 0.7, so there is actually more cost than is delivered in value by the project. That is an important point.

But my point tonight is to make clear to the chamber and ask the Treasurer to do something. The state government says that a third of the cost will come from state government sources, a third from federal sources and a third from so-called value capture. I am concerned that the state government is going to impose a raft of new taxes across the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and if you look at the way this applied, for example, on the tunnel in the city here, in the 1970s there was a tax, there was a levy on rates and there was a levy on those nearby with land tax—huge increases and huge layers of tax. What I want the Treasurer to do is to release the full costings for the value capture, because people in the eastern suburbs deserve to know how much in new tax they are going to be paying. Release the full details of the value capture.