Premier Daniel Andrews and his Treasurer, Tim Pallas, have both made speeches recently saying that the government should take advantage of its triple-A credit rating to raise public debt to finance infrastructure, where the benefit to the state is likely to exceed the cost of borrowing. It is a pity they haven't followed their own advice when it comes to the financing of the removal of suburban level crossings around Melbourne.

Greater Melbourne has more than 100 level crossings, compared to two in outer Sydney. A program to remove them, to increase the flow of traffic and frequency of trains was stopped in Melbourne to finance construction of the Eastern Freeway.

Now the lease of arguably Melbourne's greatest strategic asset, the Port of Melbourne, has been advanced as the best way to finance the removal of 50 level crossings – rather than going into debt.

Leave aside the fact that the world's greatest container ports, such as Singapore and Rotterdam, remain in public ownership for the simple reason that they have to serve conflicting objectives. They need to generate profits from stevedoring charges to shippers, while keeping costs down and promoting the growth of their hinterland. The inherent conflicts can best be resolved in-house by a government-owned port authority.