Yesterday
- Exclusive
- Infrastructure
Labor warned of risk from Victoria’s $200b rail loop
Infrastructure Minister Catherine King is fighting to keep secret the details of 30 projects that her hand-picked review said should be scrapped, as well as warnings over Victoria’s controversial Suburban Rail Loop, which will cost more than $200 billion to build and operate.
- Ronald Mizen
This Month
Energy funding chopped under weight of Victoria’s debt
Experts say this week’s state budget shows the Victorian government has prioritised major transport projects over the energy transition.
- Gus McCubbing
This tree symbolises how Victoria became a financial basket case
After 300 years of withstanding the elements, the River Red Gum in Bulleen forced the North East Link to be redesigned as the cost of the project blows out by billions of dollars.
- Patrick Durkin
New gas projects receive support amid Labor unease
Resources Minister Madeleine King has backed the development of the Narrabri gas field in NSW, and the Queensland Labor government has given the green light to four new projects in the Bowen Basin.
- Phillip Coorey
Behind the PM’s $3b ‘bailout’ of Victoria’s most expensive road
Experts blame a $10 billion blowout for the North East Link on CFMEU disruptions, a failed tender process and crazy design decisions to pander to community groups.
- Patrick Durkin, David Marin-Guzman and Gus McCubbing
Pallas vows to prove rating agencies wrong
Treasurer Tim Pallas has fended off warnings Victoria could face a third credit rating downgrade since 2020.
- Gus McCubbing and Patrick Durkin
Schools sweat on election funding promises as Victorian debt rises
Melbourne’s Hampton Primary School fears the Victorian government won’t follow through on a promise made on eve of the 2022 election.
- Gus McCubbing
- Updated
- Victorian budget
Ratings warning over Victoria’s $188b debt
Rating agencies have put the Victorian government on notice after it revealed state debt would climb to $188 billion, with a daily interest bill of $26 million.
- Updated
- Gus McCubbing and Patrick Durkin
- Opinion
- Victorian budget
Labor dodges difficult debt decisions
Treasurer Tim Pallas has not delivered the “horror budget” he prepared the ground for, nor a clear path back from the state’s crippling debt levels.
- Patrick Durkin
Victorian budget winners and losers
There are no new taxes or levies for the first time in several years – although the state’s waste and fire levies are increasing – but the budget avoids many tough decisions save for a slowdown in infrastructure spending.
- Patrick Durkin
Victoria open to tax breaks to boost home building
Premier Jacinta Allan says her Labor government is open to pulling every lever available to boost housing supply, after developers called for taxation tweaks to boost investment.
- Gus McCubbing
Allan flags budget handouts amid debt, inflation warnings
Premier Jacinta Allan vowed her government would not “put our heads in the sand” over a 20 per cent cost blowout in Victoria’s $80 billion project pipeline when the budget is handed down on Tuesday.
- Patrick Durkin
Women to get $5000 in new emergency support payments
A snap meeting of national cabinet called after nearly 30 deaths of women at the hands of men this year – also agreed to trial new measures to extreme online misogyny.
- Tom McIlroy
April
Bail rules and offender tracking to lead national cabinet talks
High-risk violent offenders face closer tracking in the community, part of a push by state premiers for tough and immediate new responses to domestic violence.
- Tom McIlroy
- Exclusive
- Electricity
Former Labor leader to chair Victoria’s SEC
Simon Corbell, a former ACT deputy chief minister, will chair Victoria’s revised State Electricity Commission, after its advisory board was disbanded.
- Ben Potter and Patrick Durkin
Why Melbourne’s housing crisis will get worse before its gets better
Victoria’s population is growing faster than any other state but as housing demand outpaces supply and wage growth, its economic prosperity is at risk.
- Gus McCubbing
Thousands join Anzac services as nation seeks to heal
Anzac Day was labelled a chance for Sydney to come together and heal after a series of terrifying knife attacks.
- Gus McCubbing
‘What Paula wants, Paula gets’: Lindsay Fox’s $152m birthday surprise
A high-profile birthday singalong broke out on billionaire Lindsay Fox’s birthday at the official opening of new $152 million Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre in Melbourne on Friday.
- Patrick Durkin
NIMBY v YIMBY as Victoria’s housing crisis grows
A Melbourne council’s plan to increase “vibrancy” by prohibiting apartment developments unless they allow commercial space has been lashed by developers.
- Gus McCubbing
Victoria has been targeting the same suburbs for 40 years
Nearly half of the Victorian government’s 10 suburbs slated for increased density have been targeted in multiple similar plans as far back as 1981.
- Gus McCubbing