East-West Link payout obscene: Morrison

A senior federal government minister has labelled as obscene the Victorian government's decision to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to extricate itself from a controversial road contract.

Social Services Minister Scott Morrison says there are many more worthy ways to spend the $339 million the state's taxpayers will provide for a consortium contracted to build the East-West Link, or the $81 million that's been spent setting up a credit facility.

"For the Victorian government to spend $420 million to pay to a company not to build a road is an obscenity," Mr Morrison told reporters in the NSW Illawarra region.