Josh Frydenberg has slammed the handbrake on a much-criticised $660 million park and ride scheme, abandoning controversial plans for four car parks in his leafy Melbourne electorate.
The Treasurer, who has faced heated constituent backlash since the 2019 election for his car park promises, says the four projects worth a combined $65 million will not proceed.
The car parks were among the 47 promised under the Urban Congestion Fund which the Auditor-General found had no criteria for judging merit.
Then-urban infrastructure minister Alan Tudge's office kept a "top 20 marginals" spreadsheet of target seats, with more than three-quarters of the promised car parks in Coalition-held electorates.
Coalition MPs and candidates were canvassed before Mr Tudge approved the projects in consultation with the Prime Minister's office.
"The distribution of projects selected reflected the geographic and political profile of those given the opportunity by the government to identify candidates for funding consideration," Auditor-General Grant Hehir found.
In the run-up to the 2019 election, Mr Frydenberg's seat of Kooyong was promised commuter car parks in Surrey Hills, Canterbury, Glenferrie and Camberwell.
The Treasurer suffered a swing of more than 7 per cent to the Greens at the election, reducing his margin to 5.7 per cent, down from 12.8 per cent.
Mr Frydenberg said the car park commitment followed consultation with the Boroondara Council, "who made it very clear there was a significant lack of parking at railway stations in the area".
But he said the Victorian government's 2019 decision to merge the Surrey Hills and Mont Albert stations meant the Surrey Hills project could not go ahead.
The decision to abandon proposed car parks at Canterbury, Glenferrie and Camberwell followed a public consultation process which "generated significant local feedback", Mr Frydenberg said.
"During this period, I also met with a number of local residents and traders and listened to the issues they have raised," he said.
"Nationally, the Urban Congestion Fund remains an important part of the government's plans to get more cars off our roads and to make public transport more accessible."
He said the government expects more than 70 per cent of car park projects to have been completed or be under construction by the end of 2022.
On Twitter, Shadow Cities Minister Andrew Giles challenged whether the other promised car parks would be built.
"Almost three years after they were promised, more commuter car parks have now been cancelled than completed," Mr Giles wrote.
"How many car parks will actually be built from this $660 million rort, or was it only ever intended to buy votes?"
At the time of the Auditor-General's report in June last year, only two projects had been completed and six had already been abandoned.
