"That is a very important step, in some respects an unprecedented step, but the public interest is served by doing that. What's more, the incoming Labor government has a very clear mandate to end the secrecy on this botched and rushed project," Mr Andrews said. Denis Napthine revealing details of the East West Link last year. Credit:Wayne Taylor Outgoing Napthine government Treasurer Michael O'Brien labelled Mr Andrews reckless.



"It's not enough for Daniel Andrews to rip up contracts, he now wants to rip up the basic conventions of government," Mr O'Brien said.



"Daniel Andrews relied on Cabinet confidentiality to avoid releasing documents when he was health minister. He now trashes that same convention when it suits his political games." Mr Andrews denied releasing the documents would affect future costs of other projects. He also said other Napthine government projects would be heavily scrutinised. Prime Minister Tony Abbott enraged many when he handed over secret cabinet documents regarding the Rudd government's home insulation scheme to the inquiry investigating deaths related to the program.

Mr Abbott and Mr Andrews spoke on Monday morning, with the Prime Minister urging the Premier-elect to build the East West Link. Illustration: Ron Tandberg. But Mr Andrews ramped up his rhetoric, saying the $3 billion allocated by the Commonwealth to Victoria for the full project was actually money redirected from funding for the Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel project. "I made it very clear to him that I wanted to sit down and work with him around our ambitious and optimistic infrastructure plan," Mr Andrews said. "Rather than political stunts and the withdrawal of money that doesn't really belong to the Prime Minister, this was Metro Rail money that then became East West money. There are many other projects that we will sit down in good faith and in good will to talk about, and that will happen quite soon."

Mr Andrews also hosed down speculation that the new Labor government would offer new projects to the East West Connect consortium in compensation for dumping the multibillion road tunnel. "Probity will guide us in all decisions we make," he said. Mr Andrews said on Monday that Labor would begin work in January on the West Gate Distributor, one of its key transport promises and a smaller-scale alternative to the western section of the East West Link. The $400 million-$500 million road link through the inner west is designed to get 5000 trucks a day off the West Gate Bridge and onto a tolled connection to the Port of Melbourne. It is essentially a revival of the Brumby government's $380 million truck action plan, cancelled by the Napthine government last year. The Victorian Transport Association was diplomatic about the West Gate Distributor on Monday, stating that it "eagerly awaits proposed road infrastructure initiatives such as the West Gate Distributor, but urges the Andrews Labor government to look to the future and deliver other vital infrastructure".

In truth, it considers the project a half solution that might not succeed in removing freight traffic from local roads in Footscray and Yarraville. Four days ago its president Brendan Hopley, who runs Murphy Transport Solutions, told reporters the distributor was "not a bad initiative but it doesn't go far enough … [and] doesn't help us get the trucks off Moore Street, Francis Street and Somerville Road".