{"id":832893,"date":"2026-07-30T06:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832893\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T06:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:39:16","slug":"ben-carroll-will-not-rule-out-redirecting-suburban-rail-loop-funds-to-other-projects-victorian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832893\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Carroll will not rule out redirecting Suburban Rail Loop funds to other projects | Victorian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria\u2019s new premier has not ruled out redirecting billions of dollars earmarked for the controversial Suburban Rail Loop to other projects, saying he\u2019s seeking to pursue the \u201cgreatest value for Victorians\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ben Carroll also used his second day in the top job to flag \u201csensible changes\u201d to nation-leading laws that would enshrine the right to work from home two days a week, as he tries to distance himself from predecessors Jacinta Allan and Daniel Andrews.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Essendon tram depot on Thursday, Carroll did not dispute reports that he would order a review into the costly 90km public transport project, which would also consider whether billions of dollars worth of construction contracts already signed could be redirected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no announcements to make today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I can say is that every dollar of my government will be invested where it delivers the greatest value for Victorians \u2013 and it will be invested responsibly, transparently and respectfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Carroll, who spoke to Anthony Albanese for the first time as premier on Wednesday, said he did not discuss with the prime minister the prospect of diverting federal funds into other projects.<\/p>\n

Speaking on ABC News Breakfast on Thursday morning, Albanese said he would work constructively with the Victorian government \u201cto make sure that the interests of Victorians are looked after\u201d.<\/p>\n

Albanese said that under the former federal Coalition government, Victoria\u2019s share of federal infrastructure funding dropped to 8%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t getting their fair share,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The federal government has allocated $6bn to the SRL, which Albanese has previously described as \u201ca gamechanger\u201d, including $3.8bn in May\u2019s federal budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The state government has also committed about $11.8bn for the first stage of the loop<\/a>, known as SRL East \u2013 a 26km stretch of tunnels between Cheltenham and Box Hill \u2013 and signed $14.5bn worth of contracts.<\/p>\n

Two tunnel-boring machines are in the ground in Burwood, expected to begin tunnelling to Glen Waverley in four to six weeks.<\/p>\n

The state opposition leader, Jess Wilson, has said if the Coalition is elected in November, she will pause and review the project.<\/p>\n

Last year, however, the opposition\u2019s transport infrastructure spokesperson, Matthew Guy, said once the \u201choles in the ground and the boring machines have started\u201d it would likely have to proceed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The SRL was first promised by Andrews ahead of the 2018 election, and has been credited with securing a number of eastern seats for Labor. Allan also championed the project, first as SRL minister and then as premier<\/p>\n

But it has been the subject of repeated criticism in the years since, including over its origins, the veracity of its business case and the total cost.<\/p>\n

The independent Parliamentary Budget Office released a costing on Thursday, commissioned by Libertarian MP David Limbrick, showing that cancelling the project now would improve the state\u2019s budget position by $21bn over the decade, though the government would have to spend $1.8bn in contract termination fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody in my electorate is pining for a train trip from Cheltenham to Box Hill,\u201d said Limbrick, who represents the south-east electorate where the SRL begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese figures show that it is absolutely not too late for Mr Carroll to take a new direction with the SRL. Continuing it for this reason amounts to a sunk-cost fallacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carroll also shifted away from another signature policy of Allan\u2019s on Thursday by flagging \u201csensible changes\u201d to her bill that legislates the right to work from home<\/a> two days a week for those who can \u201creasonably\u201d do so.<\/p>\n

The bill is expected to pass the lower house by the end of today before moving to the upper house, where it will be debated during the next parliamentary sitting week beginning 11 August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria\u2019s new premier has not ruled out redirecting billions of dollars earmarked for the controversial Suburban Rail Loop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-832893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}