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March 26th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Road map: Business wants more certainty on what infrastructure projects will be coming up. Photo: Craig Abraham
A TIMETABLE for multibillion-dollar projects, such as the proposed East West Link in Melbourne, would help stop a tide of skilled workers leaving Victoria for the mining states, the peak business lobby group says.
The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) wants the Baillieu government to use its second budget in May to detail its long-term infrastructure plan.
Key among the projects is the East West Link, which would be an 18-kilometre road connecting the Eastern Freeway and the Western Ring Road, with connections including the Tullamarine Freeway, Port of Melbourne and Geelong Road. It could take a decade to complete.
VECCI chief executive Mark Stone said now was the time for Premier Ted Baillieu to focus on longer-term projects rather than election pledges. ”You have got to … deliver what you’ve promised you’d do, but now a fair chunk of that’s done and dusted,” he said. ”Let’s look a bit further over the horizon and start to articulate what they’re going to be doing.”
The state government has asked Infrastructure Australia to provide $30 million over two years for the next stage of planning for the East West Link.
But most of the project would probably be privately funded, and the government should set out a schedule, including key milestones and a completion timeline, Mr Stone said.
Victoria risked losing some of its skilled workforce to the mining states if business was not given more certainty, he said.
Companies such as John Holland, which had staff experienced in project management for large engineering projects, were flying employees west.
”They are flying them in and out of Western Australia at the moment to keep the skills within the company and not lose them to someone else or somewhere else,” Mr Stone said. ”Companies like that need to have some idea what the prospects in Victoria are going to be over what time frame, to then have confidence in keeping those staff on the books and not letting them go to a mining project in the Pilbara or somewhere like that.”
Mr Baillieu said the rising cost of construction constrained infrastructure investment. ”It’s going to be a very challenging budget.”
In its budget submission, VECCI urged minimum $200 million annual surpluses, up from the $100 million the government has promised. The coalition should also further rein in spending growth to CPI-indexed levels – 2.75 per cent on average – rather than the 3.1 per cent announced in last December’s budget update, it said.
Mr Stone said the government’s move to cull 3600 non-front-line public servants over the next two years was a good start to slowing spending. But more rationalisation was necessary, such as merging the Department of Business and Innovation, the Department of Planning and Community Development, and the Department of Primary Industries.
AAP
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