It's the road project that helped cost Denis Napthine his job as Premier; now, it's at the centre of a billion dollar stand-off between Labor Premier Daniel Andrews and Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And on Wednesday, Mr Abbott gave his clearest signal yet that up to $1.5 billion promised by the federal government to Victoria for stage one of the controversial East West Link would be withdrawn on the eve of the next state and federal budgets.
The Prime Minister said on Wednesday he had been "verballed" by the Premier, after Mr Andrews claimed last week his request for a meeting had been met with "absolute silence".
In an interview with Fairfax radio station 3AW, Mr Abbott said that "of course" he was prepared to meet Mr Andrews over the project.
"I was rather verballed by the Premier there," he said.
"We had a conversation a couple of weeks back on another subject, on the subject of medicinal marijuana, and he and I are rather like-minded on this issue. At the end of that conversation he said 'happy to catch up next time you are in Melbourne' and I said 'yep, let's do it'.
"I am happy to meet. And most of all I just want to see the East West Link built."
Mr Abbott declared it was crazy for the state government "to spend up to a billion dollars not to build a road".
He repeatedly said the federal government - which is deeply unpopular in the southern state - was "not going to rip off Victoria".
"Unfortunately, the Victorian government has cancelled the one major road project that was shovel ready. We are there with our money, ready to support this," he said.
But Mr Abbott declined three times to say if the $1.5 billion allocated for stage one would be withdrawn.
"We want to spend the money, we absolutely want spend the money. We are never going to rip off Victoria but there is nothing else to spend it on, that's the problem."
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Andrews said he was ready to meet the Prime Minister.
"If he wants to sit down and have a discussion about the things I want to build, the things that the Victorian community voted for, so he can be more than just an 'infrastructure prime minister' in words, but in deeds as well, I am more than happy to meet with him," he said.
The first stage of the East West Link was projected to cost about $6.8 billion, while the second stage was projected to cost another $8 billion. The federal government had promised two tranches of $1.5 billion for each stage of the project to the former Liberal state government led by Mr Napthine.
Mr Andrews cancelled the project upon being elected to government and negotiations are continuing about the amount of compensation that may be paid to the consortium who were due to build it.
Victorian Labor has repeatedly said there are a number of infrastructure projects on its agenda that the Abbott government could fund, including removing 50 level crossings and the Melbourne Metro rail project.
