A new East-West link for Melbourne will boost productivity and help fight inflation, says VECCI.
VECCI Chief Executive Officer Wayne Kayler-Thomson said that improved capital productivity through better infrastructure is one key way of fighting inflation and keeping interest rates under control, and endorsed Premier Brumby’s call this week for increased Commonwealth expenditure on key infrastructure projects.
“A Commonwealth contribution to nation-building projects such as the East-West link and the Port Phillip Bay Channel Project would be welcome on this basis, particularly when Commonwealth funding has been directed to the Western Sydney Orbital Road and the Goodna Bypass in Brisbane”, says Mr Kayler-Thomson.
“Clearing infrastructure bottlenecks is a key prong in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s five-point plan to fight inflation – in the case of inner Melbourne, traffic congestion for both freight and passenger vehicles add to increased freight costs and lost employee time and are often passed onto the consumer.
“VECCI highlighted the need for a new East-West link for Melbourne at its Victoria Summit in November 2005, linking Doncaster in the east to the Sunshine-Deer Park area in the west, to alleviate current and future traffic problems.
“We would contend that the need for such a project is even greater and certainly more urgent than it was in 2005, for the following reasons:
- The completion of EastLink is ahead of schedule – an unintended consequence of this positive development is the potential of extra traffic being funnelled along the Eastern Freeway, exacerbating existing bottlenecks in the inner north. The improved connections to business and industrial areas in outer eastern and southern Melbourne will probably encourage more freight movements as well.
- Container movements through the Port of Melbourne topped 2 million for the first time ever last year, a national record, and recent estimates suggest that container movements could reach 4 million by 2020 and 7 million by 2035. A large proportion of these will be imports and exports travelling to and from Melbourne’s suburban heartland in eastern and south-eastern Melbourne.
- Melbourne is expected to be home to an additional 1 million or more people by 2030, and is currently experiencing its biggest population surge since the 1960s, with the population increasing by over 1,000 per week, more than any other major Australian city. These figures are probably understating the real growth and the attendant pressures on Melbourne’s infrastructure, with many in search of cheaper housing settling just beyond the official boundaries.
- Amenity and liveability are recognised as increasingly important to the economic future of cities – it is noteworthy that Melbourne is no longer considered the World’s Most Liveable City by the Economist’s Intelligence Unit, partly on the grounds of transport congestion.
- Our attractiveness as a tourism destination will at least in part be reliant on easy access to city landmarks, regional centres and our airports.
- The vulnerability caused by relying on one major east-west link, in Melbourne’s case the Monash-CityLink-Westgate corridor, highlighted by an accident in the Burnley Tunnel a year ago.
“Given the benefits to Victorians of a new East-West link, and the trade and population pressures we are facing, VECCI is looking to the East-West Link Needs Assessment and the Victorian Government to progress this project as rapidly as possible.
“It is also crucial that public transport and cars should be given equal weighting with the new East-West link proposal - the East-West link could be an opportunity to leverage additional public transport infrastructure for Melbourne.
“A public transport component will also send the right signals in our carbon-managed society.
“We do not think efficient roads and public transport are an either/or proposition – we need both”, says Mr Kayler-Thomson.
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