Premier Jacinta Allan has stared down critics of Labor's flagship suburban rail loop inking a multi-billion deal with international backers to dig tunnels through Melbourne's middle rung eastern suburbs. The full project will take decades and cost more than $100 billion but the premier is still unable to say how much the ambitious project will cost. With warnings tonight a scarcity of workers and materials could drive the price even higher.
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00:00 This suburban block in Melbourne's east will become a giant hole to launch boring machines
00:07 that will dig twin 16km rail tunnels between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley.
00:12 The suburban rail loop line will be the busiest train line in Melbourne.
00:14 The $3.6 billion tunnel contract with an international consortium is just one piece of the mega project
00:21 that will eventually loop all around Melbourne and could cost more than $125 billion.
00:27 But it's worn a train linking the middle rung suburbs is not needed and risks draining funds
00:31 away from the outer suburbs where projects are more pressing.
00:35 The government's leaping into the dark. It knows that it doesn't stack up now but it's
00:40 still going ahead and this is a major worry that governments could make such an irrational
00:47 decision on such a monumental project as this.
00:51 I don't think the government has explained clearly what problem they're trying to solve
00:55 with suburban rail loop.
00:57 They are betting all of their infrastructure eggs on one project and one basket.
01:01 The Premier unwilling to say how much taxpayers will be on the hook for if the contract is
01:05 torn up.
01:06 We're seeing plenty of blockers and knockers. People who are wanting to stop the suburban
01:10 rail loop are saying to these communities you may as well stay stuck in your car.
01:13 Labor is also mum on the full cost of the entire orbital line. The first leg alone will
01:18 cost between $30 and $35 billion. It wants help from the federal government but has only
01:23 secured $2.2 billion.
01:26 There are significant challenges ahead and it's not just the eye-watering cost. A new
01:30 report shows Australia is facing a significant shortage of workers for these infrastructure
01:34 projects. It also warns there's a scarcity of materials which will only drive the price
01:39 of projects up.
01:40 The infrastructure market is at capacity and that's now a question of project slippage,
01:46 not if but when and by how much and at what cost. So it's really not prudent to go ahead
01:52 and push more work into an already overheated market.
01:57 Infrastructure Australia's report found the nation needs 230,000 extra workers in the
02:01 sector.
02:02 No project is immune from the issues around market capacity.
02:05 It's a problem the state can't walk away from.
02:08 [END]
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