Labor road spokesman John Graham said the first step was for the government to reveal full details of secret contracts for toll roads,which in the case of WestConnex will remain confidential until 2060.
“The government should be upfront with the community about the secret compensation arrangements,” he said.
Former auditor-general Tony Harris said that the planned sale of the government’sremaining stake in WestConnex would mean “you have not only sold off the roads,you have sold off your ability to have a policy about this important infrastructure”.
Labor is also introducing legislation to the NSW upper house to cap increases in tolls at the rate of inflation on future motorways such as asecond road tunnel under Sydney Harbour and theM6 Extension (previously known as the F6 Extension) in the city’s south.
Under the proposal,NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford would be asked to conduct a review into existing toll road contracts,while her office would gain so-called “follow the dollar” powers to allow it to examine how private sector providers receiving public funds spend the money.
In 2017 the NSW governmentrejected a recommendation to adopt “follow the dollar” laws from an influential government committee and calls from former NSW and Commonwealth auditors general because it said it did not want to add to the “administrative burden”.
The M8 tunnel (duplicating the M5 East) opened to motorists last July as part of the second stage of WestConnex.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Mr Graham said some of the lowest-income suburbs in Sydney such as Fairfield were paying the highest in tolls each week. “Not only do they have the time disadvantage of getting to good jobs in Parramatta or the centre of the city,they have a $6000 tax on them as well,” he said.
“It is devastating for families who are finding tolls are a large part of their household budgets and getting higher. They just keep going up.”
Former NSW roads minister Duncan Gay said any move towards uniform tolling arrangements across Sydney’s motorways was “not impossible but probably unlikely”.
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Mr Gay said a precedent was set early last decade when the government asked Transurban to delay toll rises on the M2,following concerns that charges were rising while journey times for motorists were lengthening due to construction to widen the motorway.
“We were pleased that they listened and put in place delays to tolls while the M2 was widened,” he said. “There’s a precedent there.”
The government is also set to reveal in the coming months whether it will extendtolls on the Harbour Tunnel when the existing charging regime expires on August 31 next year.
Leaked state documents in 2017 revealed that the government was looking at imposing $3 tolls for cars on northbound journeys of the Harbour Tunnel and Harbour Bridge to help pay for the $14 billion cost of theWestern Harbour Tunnel andBeaches Link projects. Under that scenario,tolls would also remain on southbound journeys of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.