Ambassadors from France and Spain have made an official complaint about the Victorian Government's plan to abandon contracts for the East West Link.

French company Bouygues and Spain's Acciona are part of the East West Connect consortium that was awarded contracts to build the road by the former Napthine Government.

The Andrews Government is abandoning the project and is locked in complex negotiations to cancel the contracts signed by its predecessor before the election.

The French and Spanish ambassadors have lodged a joint complaint about plans to cancel the contract with diplomats in Canberra.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said the Government was taking the complaint seriously but would not change its position.

"That is a view they have expressed and certainly we have a different view," Mr Pallas said.

"We believe it's important that we protect the interests of the Victorian taxpayer and we make no apology for doing that, we made no secret of our position before the election."

Mr Pallas said although the diplomatic complaint was made to Canberra, there had been some contact between the Victorian Government and the French and Spanish embassies.

"We are an independent, sub-sovereign Government and we intend making sure that the interests of the people who voted for the Government of the Victorian people are given full effect to," he said.

"They might not like the way that we are proceeding... but I make no apology for protecting the interests of the Victorian taxpayer."

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said it was virtually unprecedented for such a high-level complaint to be directed at a state government.

"I think this is the first time in modern Australian history that we have seen ambassadors coming to approach Australian authorities, in this case the Victorian Government, to protest at the financial practices of an Australian government," Mr said.

"Usually Australia leads the world in the way that governments manage their financial practices, here we're at the bottom of the rung.

"We're no better off than Zimbabwe, no better than Venezuela at dealing with international companies."

Mr Pallas would not be drawn on the progress of negotiations to cancel the East West Link contract but said he expected it to be resolved before the state budget on May 5.

Victoria 'risking future investment': Briggs

Federal Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Jamie Briggs said countries were becoming worried about Australia's stability as an investment destination as a result of the decision.

"We're hearing this right across the globe, particularly my colleague Andrew Robb the Trade Minister is hearing this, everywhere he goes across the globe, people asking 'is this what Australia's now like?'," Mr Briggs said, speaking at an automotive industry conference in Melbourne.

"We don't want Australia to be like this, we want Australia to be a place where we build infrastructure, and we follow through on contracts.

"The Andrews Government is risking investment, it's going to cost Australians jobs.

Mr Briggs said Melbourne's traffic problems would only get worse without the road project.

"We want a more productive Melbourne, we want more jobs created, they should just build the East West Link, they should not put Australia's sovereign risk at risk."