{"id":31692,"date":"2025-03-05T11:02:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T11:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=31692"},"modified":"2025-03-05T11:02:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T11:02:45","slug":"700-day-toll-review-continues-new-tolls-longer-tolls-millions-wasted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/700-day-toll-review-continues-new-tolls-longer-tolls-millions-wasted\/","title":{"rendered":"700 day toll review continues \u2013 new tolls, longer tolls, millions wasted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After 700 days of talk, press conferences and expensive reports, the Minns Labor Government\u2019s so-called Toll Review has delivered nothing for drivers. Instead, the Minns Labor Government has secretly explored new tolls and longer contracts, meaning motorists will be paying more, for longer.<br>&nbsp;<br>Labor has now quietly dumped former Toll Review Chair Allan Fels as lead negotiator and is paying an estimated $990,000 for a replacement, while signing off on a $2,750,000 new legal bill for outside lawyers.<br>&nbsp;<br>Before the election, Labor made sweeping promises:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>No new tolls under Labor<\/li><li>Tolls would be cheaper under Labor<\/li><li>Toll roads would be returned to public ownership<\/li><li>Opposing two-way tolling on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Tunnel<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But after nearly two years in government, this is what has happened instead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>$5.4 million wasted on a review with no outcome<\/li><li>$1.7 million paid to ex-bureaucrats for three reports that have been ignored<\/li><li>The Toll Review Chair charging taxpayers for $750 a night for five-star hotels stays, plus business class flights<\/li><li>Secret briefings to ratings agencies on extending toll road contracts, meaning drivers will pay tolls for even longer<\/li><li>Exploring new tolls on the M5 West, M5 East, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Harbour Tunnel and the Eastern Distributor<\/li><li>Toll hikes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Tunnel<\/li><li>Traffic modelling showing some drivers could be hit with toll increases up to nine times higher<\/li><li>Warnings ignored that Labor\u2019s traffic modelling was unfit for negotiations<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Minns and Labor campaigned on lowering tolls but have instead delivered secrecy, waste, and higher costs for drivers.<br>&nbsp;<br>Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said Chris Minns made big promises on tolls, and he is breaking them one by one.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cFor 700 days, he has dodged, delayed, and dissembled. It\u2018s time he came clean,\u201d Mr Speakman said.<br>&nbsp;<br>Shadow Minister for Transport and Roads Natalie Ward said Labor\u2019s toll policy was to say one thing before the election, and then do the opposite.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cIf Labor introduces new tolls or extends toll contracts, it will be Chris Minns\u2019 \u2018no carbon tax under my government\u2019 moment,\u201d Ms Ward said.<br>&nbsp;<br>Secret meetings, million-dollar consultants, and five-star hotels\u2014this is what toll reform looks like under Labor.<br>&nbsp;<br>After 700 days, drivers are still waiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After 700 days of talk, press conferences and expensive reports, the Minns Labor Government\u2019s so-called Toll Review has delivered nothing for drivers. Instead, the Minns Labor Government has secretly explored new tolls and longer contracts, meaning motorists will be paying more, for longer.&nbsp;Labor has now quietly dumped former Toll Review Chair Allan Fels as lead &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/700-day-toll-review-continues-new-tolls-longer-tolls-millions-wasted\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;700 day toll review continues \u2013 new tolls, longer tolls, millions wasted&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31693,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31692\/revisions\/31693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}