But what was Labor's vision? Less of the same. Two main differences emerged on Thursday between Labor's transport policy and the Coalition's, neither of them based on principle. Labor, denying itself the funding boost of electricity privatisation, would delay construction of another rail crossing of the harbour for four years. In other words, the public transport priorities of both major parties are aligned. The Coalition would just hustle harder and deliver quicker.

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Nature's strongest material from a snail The second major difference is that Labor would scrap one section of the WestConnex motorway – a tunnel under the inner west – and lengthen two others. These are the M5 East tunnel, which Labor says should run closer to the port at Botany. And the M4 East tunnel, which, absurdly, the party says should run to the city.

Does that mean the central business district, Foley was asked on Thursday. "We should want to get – yes – the M4 to the city," he replied. Foley, naturally enough, wouldn't commit to a route. Does he want the tunnel to emerge at Hyde Park? The Domain? What about the basement of James Packer's casino?

Presumably Foley doesn't want a motorway in Martin Place. But he would leave the planning to the experts at Infrastructure NSW – the same "experts" who came up with the route he spent much of Thursday decrying. Foley is not the first politician to suggest the M4 motorway should run to the city. When Julia Gillard did at 2013 election, even the toll-road industry thought it was weird. "The big need is not to dump people into the CBD," Scott Charlton, the chief executive of toll-road operator Transurban said at the time. "Public transport is really the most efficient way to deliver people into the CBD." But Foley didn't have much to say about public transport.

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