PREMIER DISCUSSES CITYLINK COMPENSATION

Thursday, 14 August 2008
Summary: Victoria Premier John Brumby discusses possible compensation for CityLink as a result of any future road projects, Rod Eddington’s transport report, the development of a Green Paper on climate change, COAG, free health checks for workers, and Garrie Hutchinson’s resignation from the Veterans’ Unit within the Department of Planning and Community Development.
REPORTER:    Premier, the possibility of compensation for CityLink, for any road project that you do announce later in the year, is the cost of that something that you would factor into the cost of these projects?

JOHN BRUMBY:    Well, I think all of those comments and claims are probably hypothetical at the moment.  We’ve got a lot of projects that we’re considering, a huge number of projects – all of the Eddington projects and others – and, as you know, I’ve said we’ll determine our priorities by the end of the year and announce those projects.  But until we do that, I’m not going to speculate about what’s in, what’s out, or what the implications might be.

I will say that I think we’ll end up with a great package, a package that’ll be fantastic in terms of public transport, but also a package that’ll ease congestion on our roads.  But I’m not prepared to speculate about what might or might not be the implications in terms of any tollway operators

REPORTER:    Would you be disappointed, though, if CityLink did seek compensation, given that they’ve been doing pretty well?

BRUMBY:    Well, again, I know there’s an interest in this, and…I know it’s a topical debate, but you just honestly can’t make judgements about this issue at this point in time.      We haven’t determined any projects, and…it may be that they’re not affected, that there’s no claim at all, it may be that there is, but you can’t make those judgements until later this year.  So, I’m not prepared to, really, predict or make assessments – it’s completely hypothetical.

REPORTER:    They are entitled to compensation, though, are they not?

BRUMBY:    Well, again, all of those things are, if you like, in the melting pot.  We’ve got best part of $20 billion-plus worth of projects which are being considered by Cabinet, by Cabinet Committee, literally, as I speak.  They will be determined and announced by the end of the year, and until they are determined and announced, you can’t make, I don’t think, any predictions about how it might or might not affect any element of out transport system, so you just can’t.  I know you’re interested in this, and I know it’s very topical, but you just…it’d be completely inappropriate.  It’s a completely hypothetical question. 

We haven’t determined any projects, and until we do, and the timing and the priority of those projects, you can’t say whether there’ll be any impact on Transurban or any other tollway operators.  And if you can’t say that at the moment, I can’t speculate.

REPORTER:    Do you think, though, that the deal that the previous government got into with CityLink was flawed in that it did leave open the prospect of these sort of payments?

BRUMBY:    Well, I’ve said previously I don’t think that the deal in the ‘90’s was as good as the deal, for example, that we negotiated with EastLink, so I think we’ve negotiated a better deal.  But that’s all history, in a sense.  And, in a sense, it’s I don’t think relevant to this debate because we haven’t yet determined what projects are in and what projects are out, and until we do that, you can’t make any predictions at all about any impact on Transurban or other tollway operators.  It’s…as simple as that.

REPORTER:    So, the threat of a compensation claim or that possibility of that won’t come into your final decision-making?  You’ll make the decision regardless of possible compensation claims.

BRUMBY:    Oh, no, we’ll make our decision based on what are the best transport projects for the state, and we’re working through that now, and we need to get it right.

And we’ll have projects which address issues in the short term, which will have immediate impact, we’ll have projects that have a medium-term impact, sort of one to five years, and then we’ll have the longer term, the five-, 10-, 15- and 20-year projects.  But until we’ve resolved those, it is genuinely impossible to say whether Transurban or any of the tollway operators are affected.

But we would, of course, take into account all of the implications of any decision that we made, and any decision we make – whether it’s in public transport, whether it’s in roads, whether it’s a tunnel, whatever the decision we make – we’ve got to look at all of the broader implications of that.  But, I just repeat – I know you’re all interested in it – I honestly can’t make any predictions or assessments about what might or might not happen.  It is completely hypothetical at the moment until we determine our projects.

REPORTER:    Is it possible, as you said before, to ease congestion and improve public transport without building a rail tunnel and a road tunnel?

BRUMBY:    Well, again, that’s asking me to predict what’ll be in the package later in the year.  But we’re looking at…$20 billion-plus worth of projects: some will have immediate impact; some will have longer-term impacts.  I think what is undeniable, in Rod Eddington’s report, is that the city does need a second east-west crossing – you know, that’s the fact of the matter – and we’ve got the, obviously, the existing routes, the Westgate – that’s there – but there is, essentially, no second east-west crossing, and that’s what Rod was asked to look at.

So, one way or another we’ve got to address this issue of a second east-west crossing, and of course one way or another, too, we’ve got to build capacity in our public transport system.  And I think you know from the speech that I did last week, the RACV speech, if you look at the traffic numbers there and the public transport numbers, you know, we’re carrying 192 million people on our train system at the moment; it’s more than at any other time in our history, more than the post-war migration boom in the 1950s, so it’s a huge increase.  The suggestions and the predictions, going forward, is that we’ll be needing to carry even more in the future, so we do need to look at some of the bigger infrastructure projects.

But, again, I’m not going to pre-empt what we’re doing.  There’s a lot of different projects on the table: as I’ve said to you before, there’s the projects that Rod put on the table, plus there’s other projects; there’s things like do we put aside land for an outer ring road?  Do we have another look at the issue of the missing link, joining the Ring Road, all of these things are on the table.  They’re all big projects, they’re all large amounts of money, and we’re working through them at the moment.  And, I just repeat, there’s…we’ve got the Cabinet Committee, we’re meeting twice a week at the moment, plus all the preparation that goes into that; we’re putting in 100 per cent effort to make sure we get this right by the end of the year.

REPORTER:    It’s the biggest…the transport plan is the biggest policy development the Government would be doing at the moment.  How much of your time, as Premier, would it be taking up at the moment?

BRUMBY:    Well, I think there’s a couple of, well, three big issues that are around at the moment.  I think transport is probably the single biggest, and it’s a huge amount of time, and so I have, from my point of view, literally, meetings every day based around that, and I’m going back to Treasury Place for another meeting there today on this.  So, and ditto for Lynne, obviously, and for Tim Pallas, so there’s a huge effort.

But the other big agenda issue, obviously, at the moment is climate change and the carbon reduction scheme: the Federal Government’s essential responsibility, but we need to provide, I think, some policy leadership, as well, from the state’s perspective on that, make sure that the final plan is right.

We’re also producing, as you know, our own Green Paper on climate change – what we can do as a state; I announced that at the Climate Change Summit earlier this year.  So, there’s a huge amount of work across government going into climate change and making sure that we are, if you like, the best in Australia at tackling climate change and at making sure we get some of the economic opportunities that flow from that.

And, of course, the third big issue at the moment is COAG where, before the end of the year, we will have agreed with the Commonwealth the reform of the five largest special purpose payments which, in aggregate, are about $60 billion worth of payments to the states, and the single biggest one of the those is, obviously, the Australian Health Care Agreement.  So, it’s probably the busiest period that we’ve had in government, and I would say that the top priority at the moment is getting transport right, and I’m confident that we can get it right by the end of the year.

REPORTER:    Premier, in your speech earlier, you mentioned work health.  When are those free health checks for all workers actually beginning?

BRUMBY:    My understanding is that there’s some trials which are occurring right now in August.  Those trials are occurring, I understand, in Bendigo, and they’re on a, I guess, a modest scale; they’re on small to medium-sized enterprises.  And you’ll see, following that, through September and October and through the rest of the year, you’ll see larger-scale testing which is carried out across bigger workplaces. 
   
But we want to get this right; it’s a big investment.  But there is work being done, I understand, in Bendigo, as I speak, on those trials, so trialling the workplace, making sure we get it right, making sure that we’ve got the cost base right, and then getting the rollout, running through to the end of the year, and then full-steam, obviously, through 2009-10

REPORTER:    The decision of Garrie Hutchinson to step aside from his position at the Veterans’ Unit: you defended him earlier this week, but the Government’s now accepted his decision to move aside.  Why is that?  I mean, is it just pressure from the RSL or…?

BRUMBY:    Well, what I said about Garrie earlier in the week is that I think that Garrie’s done a…great job.  And I wasn’t aware of the background issues in relation to Garrie, and fact of the matter is that the area in which he works if, for whatever reason, the RSL and the Vietnam Veterans find that… that they’re not possible to work with him, then he’s obviously…it raises the question about whether he can do good work in that area.  And he’s made that assessment.

I haven’t spoken to Garrie, but…I’d repeat: I think that Garrie…I’m a big fan of the book that he’s written, which is about war graves and war cemeteries, Australian war graves and cemeteries around the world, and…he’s someone who’s passionate about making sure that we properly remember and commemorate the extraordinary sacrifices that Australians from the First World War, through to the Vietnam War and Iraq, have made internationally. 

But, at the end of the day, it’s a matter for him, and it simply reflects the fact that if, for whatever reason, the RSL is not able to work with him, then he’s better deployed in other parts of the Department, and he’s made that call and, at the end of the day, I think that’s…the right call in terms of all concerned parties.