Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’ tweet draws fire after debt halts airport and Geelong rail builds

A boastful tweet has come back to haunt Daniel Andrews as massive debt threatens to engulf his administration.

The Victorian premier claimed in August that under his administration it was not a matter of choosing between financing health care or new train lines.

“No railways or hospitals. Both,” he tweeted ahead of the November election.

Mr. Andrews’ tweet referenced a 1990s advertising campaign by Mexican food company Old El Paso that customers didn’t have to choose between soft and hard taco shells: “Why don’t you have both?”

The image suggested that Mr Andrews was keen to continue with both the health care and train line projects rather than favoring one option over the other.

His tweet – a reference to the Liberal opposition saying they wanted to halt construction of the Suburban Rail Loop to fund health care – has since come back to bite him.

It was revealed over the weekend that the Andrews government has been forced to halt work on two major rail projects and cut health care due to budgetary pressures.

In August, Andrews tweeted that his government could fund the “Big Build” as well as the hospitals

Critics were quick to invade the prime minister and put their own spin on the Old El Paso meme.

‘How about neither? Your regimen can’t run a bath,” one person replied.

Debt or Bankruptcy? Why can’t we have both?’ another tweeted.

A number of respondents claim that the hospitals were well supplied.

Some wanted to know if Mr Andrews planned to fulfill his election promise to spend $675 million to upgrade West Gippsland Hospital.

Where is the funding for the new West Gippsland Hospital then? If it wasn’t for $470 million+ from the Fed Coalition, you wouldn’t be doing the Gippsland rail upgrade either, which you messed up anyway,” one wrote.

“You can’t get financing or delivery for either one.”

“I really hope my family doesn’t need a tent, I mean a hospital bed soon,” a second added.

“Of course, but you don’t have the history to do anything well… So maybe stick to one thing at a time?” was another piece of advice.

Just months after work began on the city’s airport line to Melbourne’s main Tullamarine Airport, the massive $8-14 billion project has been halted, the Announce sun unveiled Saturday.

Work on the Geelong Fast Rail project has also been suspended as the Victorian government struggles to rein in its crippling debt, which has climbed above $100 million for the first time in the state’s history.

The state, which has racked up debt greater than NSW, Queensland and Tasmania combined, had to pay $1.8 billion in interest in the last half of 2022 alone and the crippling amount was expected to reach $165.9 billion by 2025 .

The latest state budget earmarked $700 million for early works on the airport line as part of a $5 billion commitment to be matched by the federal government, while $123 million was allocated to the Geelong Fast Rail.

However, the Andrew government’s signature rail project, the Suburban Rail Loop, which is predicted to explode in cost to $200 billion, is moving ahead.

While work on the airport link has stopped, other ‘Big Build’ projects continue

Opposition transport spokesman David Southwick said the Andrews government’s construction plans were collapsing under the weight of the national debt.

“The Big Build has become the big budget blowout that brings major projects to a halt,” he said.

“This is really disappointing for Victorians who want an airport rail.”

The state government has also promised an ambitious health care construction plan with new hospitals promised for Melton and Barwon Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Last week, however, the government warned community health programs that funding will be cut by up to 15 percent in the May state budget.

Mr Andrews said this had been flagged in previous budgets and would put an end to ‘a lot of services that were essentially duplications’.

“We have all kinds of different programs that are provided, and we don’t need multiple different services that offer the same thing,” he said.

However, chief executives of the affected services said they were blindsided by the move, while IPC Health’s Jayne Nelson described the news as “devastating, really disappointing.”