STEVE MARTIN, HOST: I did speak to Catherine King while AM was on air and we had invited her on already this morning about this money for the Western Highway upgrade. But I started by asking Catherine King about the pork barrelling accusations. And this is what she had to say.

MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CATHERINE KING: Well, there are two different grants programs, there are the open competitive grants programs, we are managing a number of those, which are investing over $2 billion in community infrastructure right the way across the country, the Growing Regions, Thriving Suburbs and a range of other programs, and there's more grant rounds of those coming this year. Then there's what happens after elections, where political parties at elections make election commitments and then, as we are required to do post-election, we have to have a mechanism to deliver those. And they are, according to the Commonwealth Grants guidelines, they have to be a...they're a closed program obviously, because we've made election commitments generally to particular councils or particular sporting clubs. And the program that the Centre for Integrity is talking about is the closed program where we're delivering our election commitments. So, they're trying to compare chalk and cheese, open programs with closed programs delivering election commitments. It's part of our democracy that political parties do make commitments at election time and they have to have a mechanism to actually deliver them and that's what that program is.

MARTIN: So, has the Centre for Public Integrity simply got this wrong?

KING: I think their question to some extent is should political parties be able to make and deliver election commitments, and they are a pretty central part of our democracy and really that's the question they've got somehow confused, I think, with the closed versus open programs. The previous government did it, had they won the election in 2025, they would have had to establish a program like this as well. And that is basically the way governments deliver their election programs. What we've done very carefully is make sure that there's a process by which we test, is the election commitment value for money? Is it deliverable? Ministers don't make decisions... I don't sign off on election commitments in my own seat. We've got a pretty clear process, and it's a closed program. The criticism we had of the last government, of the Community Development Grants program which was the equivalent, was that they then used it as a bit of a slush fund. So, you saw Pauline Hanson up in Rockhampton with a big cheque, and then they kept dipping into it during the course of a government and you're not really allowed to use a program like that and we don't.

MARTIN: Alright. Catherine King we did invite you on to talk about the Western Highway and this extra money now being promised by the state government but also details about the upgrade between Melton and the Deer Park bypass. This will have significant effects for Western Victoria so can you just outline that plan?

KING: Yeah, so in 2025, or just in the lead-up, we announced $1.1 billion for the Western Highway to do two things, the vast bulk of the money to try and deal with this issue where we've got from Bacchus Marsh onwards just a huge number of new housing developments, a lot bigger population, and just if you're a tradie trying to get to work early in the morning and the same on the way back home, we all know there's this big bottleneck until really you hit Melton or Bacchus Marsh and then you can get through. So, it's taking all of us a lot longer to get to and from Melbourne or those suburbs as well. And then we obviously announced money for Brewery Tap Road as well. So, all of the planning work has been undertaken over the course of the last year, working out all the what do you actually do? How can you best spend this money in a way that actually alleviates the problem? And now we've got the Victorian Labor Government committing an additional $500 million and now outlining the scope of what that money, that $1.5 billion will be able to deliver, which is around 30 kilometres of new lanes and upgrades to interchanges and really widening the freeway in certain areas getting that consistent speed limit and some temporary traffic lights around some of the interchanges to really try and start to get on top of what's been a really difficult issue I think for everybody living in those areas.

MARTIN: So, three lanes from Melton to about Hopkins Road then four lanes down to the start of the Deer Park bypass is the way I understand it from the press release is that about right?

KING: Yeah, that's right. Between Hopkins Road and Ballarat Road, there'll be four lanes and then interchange improvements at Ferris Leaks and Hopkins Road. So just trying to make sure we can get that traffic flow going as well. And that should hopefully, when the work commences on that, as I said, the planning and early works have already commenced. But once that's done, that hopefully will start to alleviate some of the problem along there.

MARTIN: Okay. When do you expect construction to start at this stage?

KING: Well, as I said, so all of that early design work's now been done. So the scope of the project has been done. And now they're obviously going to look and say what services have to be moved. And often with road infrastructure, that's often the biggest and most expensive part of it. So, if you have to move water or telecommunications or electricity technology, you have to be able to get in to do that. That work's starting now. But big construction you would expect to start next year.

MARTIN: Okay. What happens if there’s a change in state government at the November poll to this commitment from state Labor of $550 million extra?

KING: Well, the federal government's commitment is there. That's in the Budget. Obviously, the $500 million is an election commitment. If the Liberals get elected, then that won't happen.

MARTIN: Okay, so there is that question over this... planning aspect or where this project is now up to?

KING: Over the additional money, that's correct. So, this is a promise from the Victorian Labor Government to put $550 million in to get that work done and the scope and design of that work, as I said, has already been done so that they can get on with the job of fixing the Western Highway. And that's a commitment from the Victorian Labor Party, not from the Liberal Party

MARTIN: Just finally, Warrenheip and Brewery Tap Road, we also spoke about this about a year ago. I think it was May last year when some of this was announced. So is there any update on that?

KING: No, not at this stage. They still are looking at the design of what you can do for $100 million. I think there were lots of big proposals that came in that were a lot more expensive than that, that talked about bridges and a range of things. They did a big community consultation out there. So they're still working through the design of what you can do for $100 million on that project. I'd hope to see some movement on that in the next year as well.

MARTIN: Catherine King, thanks for your time.

KING: Great to be with you.

MARTIN: Catherine King is the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.