(5-1/2 mins) Federal Opposition Infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese has written to the National Audit Office asking it look at why Prime Minister Tony Abbotts government allocated $3 billion to the project without a scrap of evidence as to whether the project was value for money. The new Victorian Labor government says it will not build the road and released the business case to the public on Monday.The Victorian Coalition decided not to submit the business case to Infrastructure Australia for fear the figures may be used as a justification for not supporting the project. No wonder!! The cost-benefit analysis that was done by the Victorian Government for this toll road project showed a benefit of 0.45. What that means is 45c of benefit for every dollar thats invested. That is a shocker of a project, Mr Albanese said. The Napthine Government chose not to tell Infrastructure Australia about the facts. And Tony Abbott chose not to ask. He funded the project anyway. No checks. No rigour. In his letter, Albanese asks the Auditor-General to look at the actions of the Commonwealth Government in making an advance payment to the Victorian Government of $1 billion for East West Link Stage 2 on or about June 30, 2014 and at a time when the Commonwealth was claiming a Budget emergency. Abbott has already paid $1.5 billion (half the projected cost) to the Victorian Government. Albaneses call comes as the NSW Auditor-General savaged the $14 billion WestConnex project in Sydney saying it was not able to form a view on whether the project is a worthwhile and prudent investment … for the NSW government. Like the East West Link, the business case for WestConnex has not been released. The NSW Auditor-General also criticised the lack of independent scrutiny of the development of the project. That project is also receiving federal funds. And in Newcastle, calls for a cost-benefit analysis on closing two major railway stations permanently (Newcastle and Civic) have fallen on completely deaf ears, despite an Upper House committee of Inquiry being undertaken and also calling for the documents. We, the people, are being kept in the dark on projects like this. Why? If they had nothing to hide, they wouldnt hide it. These project favour the Liberals big developer mates at the expense of decent governance for the people who vote for them. It needs to stop, and it makes a mockery of the Budget Emergency claims that they are still making when they have no other arguments to offer. This video is the address Albo made to the press conference in full, given at just before noon (AEDST) today. Much of the article above is sourced from The (Melbourne) Age at theage.au/victoria/federal-auditor-called-on-to-look-at-east-west-20141218-12a15z.html PLEASE SHARE, and dont forget to like us here at facebook/1termtony #Auspol #OneTermTony #TonyAbbott #BusttheBudget #DoubleDissolution #MorePopularThanAbbott #AbbottFail
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 10:07:41 +0000
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