That's it for today, thanks for reading
Here are the main stories on Tuesday, 16 July:
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan says federal Labor is already taking steps to suspend the CFMEU’s construction division from the Victorian party, as she defends her handling of a letter outlining allegations about the union;
A plan to send Australian solar power to south-east Asia through the world’s longest undersea energy cable is a step closer to development;
Two swimmers who went missing at a waterfall near Cairns have been found dead, police have confirmed;
A Tenacious D gig in Newcastle is postponed amid a call for the band to be deported over what appeared to be a joke about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump;
Drivers crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the tunnel underneath should be charged in both directions as part of an overhaul to simplify pricing and cheapen commutes to and from Western Sydney, a review has found; and
Damaging winds and driving rain lashed Victoria on Monday night while snow flurries were reported in northern New South Wales as a low pressure system brought bitter weather across south-eastern Australia.
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Toll review urges overhaul to cheapen Sydney commutes
Drivers crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the tunnel underneath should be charged in both directions, a review into the city’s toll roads has urged, as part of an overhaul to simplify pricing and cheapen commutes to and from Western Sydney.
Earlier on Tuesday, the New South Wales Minns government said it would now consider the recommendations from the independent review into tolling it commissioned to tackle so-called “toll mania” in Sydney, but roads minister John Graham indicated introducing northbound tolling on the harbour crossings and southbound tolling for the Eastern Distributor – both currently tolled in only one direction – made sense. “The report makes a strong case … if we’re going to fix the system, everyone’s going to have to help,” Graham said.
In response, acting NSW opposition leader Damien Tudehope said the proposal to toll the roads in both directions – which the government has yet to say if it will adopt as part of its reform plans – constituted a broken promise from Chris Minns’ administration.
“Traffic volume increases are forecast for the M2, M4, M5 East, and M5 South-West, further congesting these busy corridors. The Minns government’s solution to “toll mania” is more tolls, right when families are struggling the most,” Tudehope said.
Meanwhile, the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents some truck drivers as well as other delivery workers who use toll roads for work, welcomed the recommendation from the tolling reviewers to make tolls for heavy vehicles cheaper. “This change would offer much-needed financial relief to owner-operators already struggling with the cost of living,’ TWU NSW/QLD state secretary Richard Olsen said.
You can read more about the proposed tolling overhaul here:
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