Spend $3, get $1 back – Freeway not worth the cost

May 21, 2010 From The Greens

After fighting the secretive State Government for over a year, Greens MP Greg Barber finally got the State Government’s submission to Infrastructure Australia which tried to justify federal funding for the Westlink Freeway.

Barber discovered yet another good reason why the Westlink Freeway should not be built – for every $3 that Brumby wants to spend on the Westlink, only $1 would come back.

“The Westlink freeway is so economically daft that neither private investors nor the federal government wants to build it,” said Mr. Barber. Now even Rudd agrees that freeways don’t make economic sense, which is why he’s refusing to give Brumby the money he wants for the freeway.

Rudd’s own adviser said the money would be much better spent on improving public transport.

But now that Rudd won’t open up the coffers for Westlink, Brumby wants Victorian mums and dads to pay for it.

The story was reported on the front page of The Age today by CLAY LUCAS May 21, 2010

For those interested in the nitty gritty, read the secret documents that Greg Barber spent a year fighting to put in the public domain.