PRIME MINISTER:
I think it’s terrific that the Victorian Government has got so much infrastructure in the planning stage and having made a substantial commitment to the first half of the East West Link, I think it’s very good that you are alerting us to the extent of the work that’s already been done on the second half of the East West Link.
The other thing that’s very good to hear is the way your government has accelerated the preparatory work and the initial work on the eastern half of the East West Link, because I think that’s what the public want to see. The public want to see the actual commencement of works, not just more feasibility studies and so on and I just want to congratulate you for all of that.
PREMIER NAPTHINE:
Prime Minister, thank you for coming down and thanks for the discussions last week which were extremely helpful and this week. Victoria is facing transition, but key infrastructure projects like East West Link, where we appreciate the $1.5 billion from the federal government, and as I say we’ve got stage two on the drawing boards and well planned. So again, this is major infrastructure which will give us a second crossing of the Maribyrnong, which would be advantageous. So, infrastructure projects that provide jobs and long term economic benefit are a way forward and so we appreciate the way you’re actively engaged with us on these sort of projects.
PRIME MINISTER:
The great thing about this particular project is that it’s really important for Melbourne but it’s also important for Geelong because just about everyone coming to Melbourne from Geelong is going to benefit from the full East West Link once it has been done.
PREMIER NAPTHINE:
Well the people from Geelong, put the West Gate Bridge bottleneck as one of their major problems and major impediments to business efficiency and whether in Geelong or Ballarat or the entire western Victoria, as well as the growth areas in the western suburbs, we’ll all benefit from having East West Link stage two. So that’s an important project and I also appreciate the broader discussion on the work that your team are doing on Victoria in transition and the opportunities that will provide in the weeks to come.
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s right, we’ll be getting our report on the Victorian economy, we’ll be getting that in about 10 days time, so early in March we’ll have some announcements to make and then in the build up to the Budget there’ll be further announcements to make because what we want to ensure is that the people of Victoria can face the future with confidence and sure there’s been some shocks – I mean Holden was a shock, Toyota was a shock, Alcoa was a shock – but there is a lot of fundamental strength in this state and we need to build on that.
PREMIER NAPTHINE:
There’s no doubt about that. We are an economy in transition but we are a strong, robust and diverse one, we’re not just Melbourne, Victoria but our regional areas have got the fastest job growth rate anywhere in Australia. So Geelong, yes, the Alcoa decision will have an impact, but it is a different economy than what it was 10 and 20 years ago and we want to work with the Geelong community, as we work with the Melbourne community, to provide the infrastructure and the settings that will allow business to get on with the job and create long term sustainable jobs in a more competitive global market.
PRIME MINISTER:
There are some quite exciting developments that people are thinking about in Geelong which we can include as part of our announcements in coming weeks.
PREMIER NAPTHINE:
Well, Prime Minister, thank you very much.
[ends]