The deal to build Southern Cross Station is a rip-off for Victorian taxpayers.

By Kenneth Davidson

I THINK the claim that Victorian taxpayers are getting value for money for financing infrastructure through public - private partnerships fits into the big lie category. It survives because the partnerships are diabolically complex - deliberately so. Just as tax avoidance flourished in the '80s because the Barwick High Court didn't do its job, these partnerships are flourishing in Victoria because the state Auditor-General's Office isn't doing its job to unpick these schemes to show how taxpayers and their heirs are being robbed.

An excellent example is the Southern Cross Station partnership and the Auditor-General's report tabled in Parliament last week amid the noise of the final days of the federal election.

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Posted by dcjaya at November 29, 2007 4:00 AM