Amid anger within Victoria over the lack of infrastructure funding from Canberra, the Turnbull Government this morning announced that it would provide an additional $500 million in funding for Victoria’s regional rail network. From The Australian:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this morning pledged an extra $500 million of federal funds in the regional rail project on top of the $1bn allocated in the budget.
The federal government will provide the lions share of funding for the upgrading of Victoria’s regional railways, while the Andrews government has agreed to allocate $150m.
Nearly $1bn will be spent upgrading the Ballarat and Gippsland lines, while there will also be major upgrades to the North East Line, Warrnambool Line and railways on the state’s Surf Coast…
“People deserve better public transport no matter where they live. That is why the Coalition is unlocking funding for major upgrades to rail in regional Victoria, creating over 1000 new jobs,” Mr Turnbull said.
The announcement comes after a protracted public stoush between the Turnbull and Andrews governments about how much money the federal government should give Victoria for $9.7b sale of the Port of Melbourne.
While this additional infrastructure funding is welcome, the fact remains that the federal government will need to continue to invest heavily in Victoria if the state has any hope of keeping up with the population growth bestowed on it by the federal government’s mass immigration program:
According to the State Government’s official projections, Victoria’s population will balloon by 4 million people (+67%) over the next 35 years, which will require unprecedented infrastructure investment if living standards are to be maintained.
