"[It's] an agency – I think based out of Sydney is it? – that reports to a Prime Minister very much based out of Sydney," the Premier said on Tuesday. "I do find it a little hard to take them [Infrastructure Australia] particularly seriously when the fastest growing state in our nation is recommended to receive support for 13 projects and NSW is recommended to receive support for, I think, 33." The report backed the controversial East West Link as a "high-priority initiative" that should be delivered within five years. Infrastructure Australia argues that improving connections “between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink" would help ease worsened congestion along the east-west corridor north of the CBD.

The Andrews government dumped the project in 2014 at the cost of more than $1 billion. The project had a predicted return to taxpayers of just 45 cents worth of benefits for every $1 spent on it, a business case produced for the Napthine government in 2014 found. Loading Mr Andrews said the state's advisory body, Infrastructure Victoria, did "understand Victoria, having been created by the Victorian government. Living and working in our state, they have very different timing, very different views," he said. "We are getting on with delivering the projects that Victorians have voted for." Mr Andrews was speaking at an event for the massive West Gate Tunnel toll road – a Transurban project that was not taken to the electorate at the last election, and that is 10 times more costly than the plan Labor did put to voters in 2014.

"We are very much focused on delivering the projects that we took to the election and projects that are critically needed beyond that," Mr Andrews said. Hugh Batrouney is an economist and infrastructure specialist from the Grattan Institute. He said a big part of Infrastructure Australia's work was state governments opting in to the process because they provided business cases to the body, which then assessed them alongside other projects. "The number of projects on the list is a bit of a distraction," he said. The ABC and RMIT also recently compared infrastructure funding across Australian states. They found that some states were consistently getting a larger share of infrastructure, with Queensland the standout. "On the current expected spending carve-up, Queensland is set to receive an annual average of 33.5 per cent – well above its 20 per cent share of the national population," they found. NSW also got a disproportionately large share, with about 30 per cent of funding. Victoria was the most disadvantaged state, they found, with an annual average of 11.8 per cent of the total – "despite a 25.7 per cent share of the national population".

Infrastructure Australia chief executive Philip Davies said its priority list showed that NSW needed more investment due to years of neglect. "It reflects a couple of things: the lack of investment in Sydney over a 15-year period which has seen similar levels of growth to Victoria." He said Victoria had "a more mature public transport system" and that the funding requests were "obviously a reflection of where the development of those cities are up to". "We’re seeing a lot of growth in Melbourne and so the Victorian government is responding to that. It’s a statement in time, I wouldn’t read too much into it.” RMIT infrastructure expert Ian Woodcock said the Victorian projects on the priority list would lock Melbourne into car dependence. Dr Woodcock said NSW, while also lobbying for some "mega-road" projects, had "a vision for a dramatically enhanced urban railway network".



NSW's list of projects ready to go showed the "parlous" state of Victorian transport planning, he said. And the more advanced projects in Victoria were "the tip of a massive road-building iceberg" that would "generate more traffic, needing ever more roads". Paul Fletcher, the Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities, said the Turnbull government would provide $3 billion to fund the East West Link, and claimed Mr Andrews made a "destructive and wasteful decision" to cancel the project. "Instead of playing politics and seeking to tarnish the reputation of a respected independent advisory body for his own political purposes, Daniel Andrews should instead heed the advice of Infrastructure Australia which has identified East West Link as a high priority initiative," Mr Fletcher said. Greens senator Janet Rice also said Victoria's projects on Infrastructure Australia's priority list were focused on "last century’s patterns of car dependence" that were "not the solution for our growing cities”. Senator Rice said it was disturbing to see the “zombie East West Link" back on the agenda: "We know from the last incarnation that the business case for East West Link showed it was an expensive, loss-making disaster."

With Adam Carey