Indeed the Premier's words yesterday were an excellent summary of the situation - his Government is committed to the case for a second crossing.
But as long as it remains adamant there will be no tolls on existing roads, the case for the crossing is all it is committed to. Not to actually building the thing.
"I just wish we could get support from the Federal Labor Government and the State Labor Opposition," Transport Minister Terry Mulder wailed to Neil Mitchell (3AW) yesterday.
Pressed on how things were progressing, he went on: "Aah, the East West link. We're preparing the business case at the moment, we hope to have the work completed on that later this year, we've engaged with overseas contractors and financiers, we have a commitment from the Federal Opposition of $1.5 billion, to release $500 million in their first term to assist the state to get the project up and running. We've got nothing from the Gillard Government . . . and as you know Daniel Andrews . . . is opposed to it."
Honestly, who cares what Daniel Andrews thinks. He's not the premier. (Though, to be fair to him, if this lot keep going the way they are going, he will be.) And forget about Tony Abbott's promise of $1.5 billion. He's not in government, either.
The way Julia Gillard is spending money, I wouldn't be putting my political future in his hands if I were the Victorian Government. Tony no doubt has the best of intentions when it comes to coughing up for Ted and Terry's tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway to CityLink - the part of Sir Rod Eddington's road plan they want to build first - but it may just be that, well, aah, there's nothing there when in two years it comes time to write the cheque. If he wins.
The most important thing for us to know right now about the tunnel is that it "is right down the bottom of the list" of the Gillard Government's priorities, as a spokesman said in July.
The Government could pay for its tunnel - indeed it could probably pay for the full link through to Sunshine - if it were prepared to bite the bullet and introduce tolls on existing roads.
You would think that chaos such as yesterday's might have provided the Government with the cover to abandon its position.
Indeed it's hard to think - short of the tunnels or the West Gate being closed for a prolonged period for structural reasons - when people would have been more open to the idea we might have to pay tolls on existing roads in order to build new.
Yesterday Eddington acknowledged it would be "flippant in the extreme" to pretend it would be easy politically. But he drew a distinction between new tolls on existing roads and reintroducing tolls on the West Gate.
"The West Gate was once tolled, if that tolling regime had have stayed in place it would be a capital flow to reinvest into additional freeways," he said.
"How do you pay for something which provides some duplication to the West Gate? Well one of the ways . . . is to contemplate the reintroduction of tolls on the West Gate, but that's politically very sensitive."
Too sensitive for the government alas. Almost 20 years ago Jeff Kennett built CityLink by tolling the southeastern and Tullamarine freeways. He endured political heat but he got it built.
It's called leadership.
heraldsun.com.au 4 Oct 2012
The tolling of public roads is an illegal act.
Citylink ILLEGALLY tolls the 'freeway' at Moreland road on the way to Melbourne's city centre, in which the government supports this illegal act against the motoring public to the tune of billions of dollars per year.
Since this is fraud against the populous, no action will ever eventuate against the corporate giant.
The toll points and the camera network associated are monitoring points against the masses.
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