Picking up on down turn

I REFER to your article ‘Trains take a down turn’ (Star, 11 March) highlighting that the Infrastructure Report Card showed the Labor government has responded slowly to public transport problems and had generally provided insufficient investment to address the problem.
The comment made by an unnamed government spokesperson that “if Gordon Rich-Phillips wants to spend more money on infrastructure he needs to come clean on whether he will raise taxes or increase debt” demonstrates just how short sighted and hypocritical the Brumby government really is.
In fact the same unnamed Labor spokesperson also stated that “the report card failed to mention tens of billions of dollars of massive infrastructure projects delivered or underway in Victoria”.
I wonder if those tens of billions of dollars came from raising taxes, increasing debt or both?
In all actuality Labor has spent a lot on money on public transport – a large portion of it on the X’Trapolis trains which cannot run on south-eastern lines, and large portion of it wasted on billion dollar schemes like Myki.
Our public transport issues are a result of the Brumby government’s short-sightedness, poor planning and arrogance, not a lack of debt or taxes.
More can be spent on infrastructure and this can be done by not wasting money on schemes that don’t work.
Gordon Rich-Phillips,
Member for South Eastern Metropolitan Region.