“I know that the Shepparton Bypass project is an important and a priority project for the region along with the rail line,” she said.
“I've had a conversation with the new federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King a week or so ago and we're in the process of lining up her diary so we can have our first formal sit-down face-to-face meeting where we will work through our priorities.”
Despite the former Federal Coalition Government committing more than $200 million to the first stage of the Shepparton Bypass linking Shepparton and Mooroopna to the north of the city, the project remained stalled.
The Victorian Government provided a business case in 2020 but releasing costings became a political football right up to the May Federal Election when then Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce revealed the projected cost was around $1.2 billion.
The rail upgrade for Shepparton is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and the Victorian Government, and the road bypass would require an 80/20 funding split.
“For their own reasons, they (the former Federal Government) were unable to progress that either with the community or with the Victorian Government even though we'd finished the business case at their request for that project, so we need to see from the incoming Federal Labor Government what their broader priorities for the whole state are, and where that project fits into them,” Ms Allan said.
Ms Allan said the Victorian Government had been consistent in putting a position seeking a fair share of infrastructure funding invested in the state.
“What is pleasing to see now with the election of the Federal Labor Government is that we've got a government in Canberra that's prepared to partner and listen to the Victorian Government about priorities and work through those issues,” she said.
“Obviously Victoria has its priorities and we saw through the Federal Election, federal Labor outlined a number of projects that it was going to support, that's a great and important foundation to start the conversation on, one that's about understanding we've got to work together and talk through these priorities, rather than have some of the adversarial approaches that we had from the previous Liberal Nationals Government.”
