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By Karl Charikar MELBOURNE — The City Link project is as much a federal election issue as it is a state one. But in the jockeying for votes between Liberal and Labor, transport, pollution and congestion problems have been pushed to the sidelines. City Link will be an environmental, social and economic disaster, encouraging thousands of extra vehicles onto the city's roads. Motor vehicles are responsible for 70% of Melbourne's air pollution, which is linked to the premature death of about 400 Melburnians a year. Under this government-subsidised private monopoly, the healthier alternative of better public transport is discouraged by a deal that allows the builders, Transurban, to claim compensation for any improvements to public transport that affect its profits. Paul Keating has been happy to wash his hands of City Link, saying that those who oppose it should vote against Jeff Kennett. However, Keating is far from powerless to intervene. The recently passed Melbourne City Link Act states that a federal environmental impact statement (EIS) could have the power to cancel the project. Kennett knows that a thorough environmental assessment would reveal that the state government's panel inquiry was shamefully inadequate. It was a panel inquiry into the Western and Southern Bypasses, not the City Link, and did not examine the widening of the south-eastern and Tullamarine freeways. It also examined the impact of these works in isolation, not as a single project. And it did not examine the impact of tolls on freeway usage or of the $500 million of road closures and restrictions that will funnel drivers into the tollways. Important aspects of the project, such as the location of entrances to tunnels, were not debated by the panel. They were left to the minister for planning, Rob Maclellan, to decide, in consultation with Transurban. Furthermore, many of the panel's recommendations have been ignored or overturned by Maclellan. The panel inquiry's inadequacy is further highlighted by the fact that the project is exempt from the state's environmental effects legislation. The EIS for the Western and Southern Bypasses was prepared by Vic Roads. It is hardly likely that the state's road builder would recommend against building roads. A federal EIS would show that the figures discussed by Kennett on travel times, traffic volumes and Transurban's profits are the stuff of fairytales. Keating has a chance to stand up against the ravages of Kennett's City Link and demonstrate his environmental credentials by undertaking a federal EIS. There are various triggers that Keating could use for this. First, the state's planning process was inadequate. Secondly, federal tax concessions for City Link should not be granted without the normal planning controls — an EIS. Keating could also intervene on the grounds of meeting the federal government's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the UN Earth Summit treaty. The federal government has previously used the Commonwealth's external powers to override state projects around environmental issues — why not now? Keating has been unwilling to state clearly if he supports City Link. If he does oppose it, he will do what he can to halt it. If, however, he refuses to halt it, he then becomes a partner in environmental disaster, in state subsidies to private monopolies and in the repressive, anti-democratic and secretive legislation we have come to expect from the Kennett government. What we have seen so far is political opportunism from both Keating and Kennett, supported by mainstream media desperate for a personality stoush. Keating tries to wash his hands of City Link and waits for a voter backlash against Kennett to benefit the ALP. Kennett bluffs by threatening to allow City Link to collapse if Keating intervenes. He could then blame Keating for depriving Melbourne and drum up the issue of states' rights. Both are playing politics for electoral advantage. Somewhere behind all this lie the issues that will affect us — pollution, heath, congestion and democratic planning processes. The Coalition Against Freeway Extensions (CAFE) currently sees no difference between the federal ALP and the Coalition. It hopes Labor will demonstrate its environmental credentials by blocking City Link now. If not, those opposed to City Link should not be voting for either the major or minor partners in this project.
[Karl Charikar is an activist in CAFE. The campaign can be contacted at Friends of the Earth, 312 Smith Street, Collingwood 3066, or phone (03) 9419 8700.]