The common thread is an apparent need to ensure that not only is the chronology correct, but to make sure credit/blame is properly apportioned to the appropriate political party.
The credit and blame are equally applied to actions taken or failure to take action.
In a year where federal and Victorian elections will be held, it is normal for political aspirants and their backers to nitpick over the finer detail.
It matters, but it isn’t the real issue.
The serve and return of serve will no doubt roll on, that’s politics.
Let’s wind the clock back to 1999 and the release of the panel inquiry into the environmental impacts of each option.
The full western alignment running from Arcadia to north of Shepparton with two bridge crossings was estimated to cost $285.7 million.
lt was assumed that stage one, a two-lane bypass, would start in 2006, and be open to traffic in 2018.
Stage two, a duplication to make it four lanes and 110km/h, was to start in 2014 and be completed by 2026.
It is interesting to note the opposition to the western route cited in the report from local transport operators who were mostly based in Shepparton’s east.
More than two decades later those same companies are behind the push for urgent construction of just a fraction of the bypass proposed in 1999, even at up to three times the original estimated cost.
Will political point-scoring over who has done more, or less, to get to the point we are now at really shift a voter’s intent?
There are two indisputable facts on the bypass that do matter; we need one, and, we don’t have one.
The political party that can deliver this vital piece of infrastructure will surely win the argument, once and for all.
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