A levy secretly slapped on Victorian public transport users – designed to help pay for the Suburban Loop and other Big Build projects – will be scrapped, the state premier has announced. Ben Carroll announced on Thursday that he would move to abolish the levy “because there was no transparency in its creation and implementation”. They also deserve to know what their money is buying.
Under my leadership, they will.” The existence of the levy was revealed in an auditor general report tabled in parliament on Wednesday, which also cast doubt on whether the first stage of the multibillion-dollar project – a 26km stretch of twin tunnels from Cheltenham to Box Hill dubbed SRL East – can be delivered on time or within budget. The levy, in place since 1 January 2025, imposed a 1% annual increase on all public transport fares in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, on top of existing adjustments in line with inflation. Carroll was the public transport minister when the levy was first approved in 2021, according to the auditor general report.
But he said on Thursday he was not involved in the decision. Carroll later said he was not on the state’s four-person budget and finance committee in December 2023, which was when he said the levy had been approved. According to the auditor general report, further decisions about the levy were discussed by government in November 2024, when he had been added to the committee.
Carroll told reporters he would not “relitigate the past”, but under his leadership “transparency and accountability is fundamental”. According to the auditor-general report, the levy was expected to raise $8bn in today’s dollars over 37 years, with 60% – or $4.8bn – to be directed to SRL East. This would have made the levy the “largest source of value capture revenue” for the project.
Under its funding plan, $11.5bn – one-third of the cost of building the tunnel – was to be funded by value capture. On Thursday Carroll would not say how the $4.8bn shortfall as a result of abolishing the levy would be made up, but noted he had pledged to reduce the project’s cost by $2bn earlier in the week. The government did not reveal the levy when it announced its value capture model in December, despite naming other sources.
The auditor general also said Transport Victoria did not acknowledge the levy in its public communications about the 2025 and 2026 annual fare increases. The deputy premier, Gabrielle Williams, told reporters she was aware of the levy when she announced an increase to public transport fares in December 2024. She conceded keeping it secret “did not pass the pub test”.
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