Michael Sukkar MP

East West Link: Just Build It, Dan Andrews

I rise today to again draw attention to the growing community anger in my electorate of Deakin at the way Labor have turned their back on Melbourne’s east in their reckless attempt to destroy the East West Link. On Saturday morning members of our local community gathered in Ringwood to launch the Build the Link campaign—a campaign which will provide an opportunity for residents to tell Labor that we need the East West Link.

I was pleased to be joined by the members for Aston, La Trobe and Casey to reaffirm the federal coalition’s $3 billion commitment to the project. As those gathered told me, we need the East West Link. No arguments, no evasion and no delays. Victorians know that the project is shovel ready, fully funded and ready to go now. All that is needed to get things under way is for Bill Shorten to pick up the phone to Dan Andrews and tell him what he knew back in 2008—that the East West Link is good for Victorian families, good for jobs and good for business.

We know that it will create 6,500 jobs and save commuters in the Deakin electorate up to three hours a week in travel time. But the state Labor Party with the support of Bill Shorten would rather pay $1.2 billion in compensation not to build the road, so I say to Bill Shorten and Dan Andrews: get out of the way, honour the contracts and allow us to get on with the job.