Michael Sukkar MP

Labor, Just Build the East West Link

I rise today to again highlight the community’s anger in my home state of Victoria due to Labor’s attempted destruction of the East West Link project.

This is a major problem entirely of the Labor Party’s making, reversing its previously long-standing support of the East West Link project just to appease some inner city Greens voters.

Residents in my electorate of Deakin are overwhelmingly in support of the East West Link and just want it built. No arguments, no evasion, no deception: they just want the East West Link built now.

This is a shovel-ready project; it is fully funded and work can commence immediately. Not only will this vital infrastructure save commuters more than three hours of travelling time per week but it will also create more than 6,700 jobs during the construction phase and improve the productivity of all Victorian businesses.

As many Victorians have said to me, this is the economic shot in the arm that Victoria needs. But all this is now being placed at risk due to the actions of Dan Andrews, Bill Shorten and Labor.

Rather than just building the East West Link, Labor would rather spend $1 billion not to build the road.

So I say to Labor, Dan Andrews and Bill Shorten: if you continue down this path, you will once again be abandoning the people of Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, denying us the economic benefits of this infrastructure and threatening the great reputation of our state.