E&OE….
Topics: East-West Link, Monash Upgrade
CRAIG WILLIS:
Joining us this morning, Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt.
GREG HUNT:
Morning Craig.
JOHN BURNS:
Good morning to you Greg.
GREG HUNT:
How are you guys?
CRAIG WILLIS:
But first – well, we're well, thank you. But first of all, we're a bit surprised that the Federal Government is taking an interest in Melbourne's traffic problems.
GREG HUNT:
Well look, firstly I'm a Victorian MP, and I live on the Mornington Peninsula.
My constituents live on the Mornington Peninsula and all around Western Port.
Secondly, a new Prime Minister – and a very, very clear expression of interest in trying to help reduce congestion in our cities.
Nothing goes more to quality of life – after public safety – than the massive congestion problems that Melbourne faces.
And in a post East-West world, where the State has put on hold what is the number one project, we don't want to be frozen. People need to fix the Monash.
CRAIG WILLIS:
Well what do, well – first of all the Monash, but what are you going to do about the East-West problem?
GREG HUNT:
Well we will be absolutely committed to it, and we can't build it alone. The State owns the land, they own the roads.
But our message is very clear – that you cannot – cannot – stop what will inevitably be necessary.
In the end, Melbourne's going to need a cross-city rail tunnel, and a cross-city road tunnel – which is East West Link. Otherwise we will never resolve these problems of congestion.
CRAIG WILLIS:
Well will you get cooperation from the Victorian State Government?
GREG HUNT:
On East West? At this point, they have their head in the sand.
And my message to them is, in the real world people are sitting in their cars listening to us now, they're wasting time – it's time that at the end of the day they can share between either their family, their leisure, or their work.
But people need to get that time back. And every day that East-West is delayed is a day that is time stolen from families and commuters.
KATE STEVENSON:
Minister, looking at some of the projects you're talking about – so things like widening the Monash around the Hallam Bypass, fixing that missing link between the ring road and the Eastern, which will help with the East-West connection.
What sort of timeline – if you can get the State Government support – what sort of timeline would we be looking at for these?
And are there priorities? What comes first?
GREG HUNT:
Sure. So there's short term and long term.
And in the short term, whilst East-West is on hold – and that would be the single best, most important thing.
And we need everybody to join us in the campaign to say to the Andrews Government – okay, you made a political point, but at the end of the day, people are trapped in their cars.
In the short term, the Monash Freeway upgrade must – must – be supported by the state.
Infrastructure Australia, which is the body that looks across this right across the country, says it's ready to proceed.
And what that means is you have a third line on the Hallam Bypass, using what's called the hard shoulder – and Infrastructure Australia has supported this – and then you complete the technology which reduces waiting times, including freeway ramp signals, traveller information, lane-use management, variable speed limits.
All of that can be done quite quickly.
Then the longer term – truly big-picture stuff – is firstly East-West Link, a cross-city tunnel. A longer time frame is the question of the missing quadrant – you might call it – of the ring road around the city, which won't be a ring road until that's essentially built as a tunnel.
That is a significant long-term project.
Over a 50 year period, as we prepare for the next half-century and beyond, the progressive undergrounding of much of the urban railway network or rail lines, as other great cities have done.
And then in the end Melbourne's port will inevitably need to largely be moved to a combination of Geelong, Hastings, and Portland, to take the heavy trucks out of the cities and to put the jobs on the outer edge of the city, which makes inevitable sense.
CRAIG WILLIS:
Minister, Andrew's on the line, he has something to say to you. Good morning Andrew.
CALLER ANDREW:
Yeah, good morning, yes, I'm one of those frustrated motorists sitting on the Monash car park this morning, which is a complete disaster.
All us motorists want to see in this city is build the bloody road, build the bloody East-West Link, and get on with it, because you know what, another five years time, I reckon I'll be walk – be able to walk quicker on the Monash to get to work than what I can to drive.
CRAIG WILLIS:
To ease your frustration, a couple of bottles of the De Bortoli Bella Riva Pinot Grigio. We're going to take more calls on this issue after 7:30.
Minister, very quickly, everything seems to be East-West. Nothing north-south. What's going on there?
GREG HUNT:
Well this is the question of the – what's called the missing link – or the missing quadrant of the ring road. You have a ring road which has three parts not four.
And so when you look at the whole future of Melbourne, you've got the cross-city rail, the cross-city road, you have the missing quadrant – which would be the northeast corner, which would be a tunnel, essentially.
Big, significant projects. But in the meantime, Andrew is absolutely right.
People are sitting on the Monash car park. They need two things. They need an upgrade now in terms of fixing the Monash between – with the third lane using the hard shoulder between the South Gippsland Freeway and Clyde Rd, and then the technology upgrade.
And then everybody – everybody – knows that in the end, we have to build East-West Link, and we are just going to keep campaigning until that's done.
And the more motorists that can talk to the State Government, send messages through the radio that this is the real world, we're the ones that are sitting in our cars whilst they're sitting on their hands.
CRAIG WILLIS:
Minister we thank you for your time this morning.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks a lot.
(ENDS)