The end of the road.

Many of us thought we would be chaining ourselves to trees in Royal Park by now.  But thanks to the commitment of community campaigners and the new Labor government, we are instead celebrating the end of the East West Link.

Yesterday, Premier Daniel Andrews announced a $339m deal had been finalised with the East West Connect consortium to cancel the contracts entered into in the dying weeks of the Napthine government.  A further $81m is tied up in loans that will be redirected to the Metro Rail project, according to the government.

Community members greeted this news with immense relief.  Years of campaigning has resulted in a win (for once). Despite the cost of the deal, the cancellation of the economically and environmentally flawed East West Link has been welcomed by everyone who took part in the community campaign.

Today, we said thank you to Premier Andrews and his Ministerial team who doggedly pursued the challenge of negotiating the cancellation of the contracts. At short notice, about two dozen representatives from community groups, including Tony Murphy, Keith Fitzgerald, Harriet Mantell, Petra Stock, Andrew Kelly, Julianne Bell, Michael Petit, and Rilke and David Muir, met with Ministers Richard Wynne and Jane Garrett at Parliament House.

Flowers and cards were presented to the Ministers who spoke about the work of community members in fighting for their homes, parkland and against poor infrastructure planning.

The event has brought the current campaign against the East West Link to a happy close.  Against the odds, we have reached the end of the road. WOOT!!

MEDIA RELEASE East West Link Thanks