This newspaper spent all of Thursday – and will devote all of Friday – to the noble public policy issue of infrastructure, so here's one in that spirit:

The establishment of Infrastructure Victoria will be rubberstamped by Daniel Andrews' cabinet as early as Monday. Nothing remarkable about that, really. It's an election commitment coming to fruition and simply puts the state on par with the Commonwealth and NSW.

But what has Tim Pallas' Treasury and senior figures in the sector gobsmacked is the Premier's intention to appoint company director Elana Rubin as IV's inaugural chair.

Transurban Queensland director, and putative Infrastructure Victoria chair, Elana Rubin. Luis Ascui

Rubin is also a director of Transurban Queensland. And it was Transurban that saved Andrews from his own East West Link mess by suddenly and selflessly proposing an alternative project: a $5.5 billion Western Distributor that will undoubtedly be funded substantially by taxpayers.

How breathtakingly amateur of the Premier's office, then, to think a senior Transurban figure could helm the state's "independent body" on planning and development! Next the CFMEU will be blockading the CBD. Oh, hang on …

Rubin also sits on the board of construction giant Mirvac. But Andrews' affinity for her likely comes down to her deep links with the trade union movement, including as the one-time chair of AustralianSuper.