Im not aware Alan Tudge denies knowledge of car park target list

“It started being initially termed as being the top 20 marginals,” he said.

“The key thing was to touch base with the top 20 marginals, either the member of the House of Representatives if the electorate was held by the Coalition, the relevant duty senator for other electorates and endorsed candidates in two other electorates to ask them what projects in your electorate do you think worthy of being put through this program.”

Pressed further about the Auditor-General’s evidence to the Senate inquiry, Mr Tudge said he was “not aware of that”.

Two of the projects, Ferntree Gully and Boronia, were in Mr Tudge’s electorate of Aston.

The existing car park at Ringwood station, one of several sites chosen for upgrades under the federal government’s controversial congestion fund.Credit:Paul Jeffers

Former Victorian Supreme Court judge David Harper, QC, said last month the scheme was “on any appropriate definition” an example of corruption.

Mr Tudge said the car parks were chosen on the basis of need.

He said the Auditor-General had found the decisions on the car parks were legal.

“The Auditor-General also said they were all lawfully based. 33 of them were ticked off by the department for coming up for decision. We took those to the Australian people and the Australian people voted for them,” he said.

Mr Tudge said the Coalition had sunk $9.1 billion into three “mega” projects across western and north-western Melbourne which were Labor-held seats.

He nominated the planned Geelong fast trail project which the Coalition promised at the 2019 election as part of its efforts to retain the marginal Liberal-held seat of Corangamite.

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Mr Tudge also said eastern Melbourne used to have a mega-project, the $17 billion East-West Link.

That project has been Liberal Party policy at the last two state elections which have been won by the Labor Party.

Mr Tudge, who said Labor’s own car park fund had promised projects to either Labor-held seats or those it was targeting at the last election, said the program was all about boosting demand for suburban rail.

“Our aim was to boost capacity right across particular lines,” he said.

“If you can boost capacity in one location it supports capacity further down the track. I had representations as much as anyone did across Melbourne, that people go to commuter car parks in the morning, find that the first one is full so what do they do, the drive to the next one. The next one’s full so they drive to the next one. The next one’s full and it keeps on going.”

Source: | This article originally belongs to smh.com.au

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