GreenLeft Weekly: Government spin on East West Link hides inconvenient facts. Saturday, November 1, 2014 By Narendra Mohan Kommalapati
The authority responsible for managing the East West Link has sent residents in inner-city Melbourne an eight-page brochure extolling the virtues of the new motorway.
The newsletter says that work is set to commence on the project to build 4.4 kilometre twin tunnels between the Eastern Freeway and City Link in Moonee Valley. It would create about 3700 jobs, including 150 for automotive workers facing unemployment from the closure of Ford, General Motors and Toyota plants in Melbourne and Geelong.
Nowhere does the newsletter mention the estimated $14-18 billion cost of the project; or the fact that the government has resisted efforts to release the business case for the plan; or that the project will bury the much-demanded Doncaster train link to the city.
It is clear the real aim of the “newsletter” is to intimidate and hoodwink opponents. Nowhere does it acknowledge the widespread and strong community opposition to the tunnel, the fears of smokestacks near schools and early childhood centres, the loss of green spaces in Moreland and Royal Park, nor the impact of noise levels from road overpasses on residents of housing estates in Moonee Valley. (More in link)
