Vic premiers failed with East West Link

Blame for the East West Link debacle sits squarely with Victorian premiers Denis Napthine and Daniel Andrews.

They and the state's top treasury officials are culpable for wasting $1.1 billion in taxpayer funds for absolutely no gain.

The only thing Victorians have to show for three years of spending is an embarrassing list of failures.

Desperate to do something after the go-slow of the Ted Baillieu years, Liberal premier Dr Napthine rushed the East West Link proposal through.

The deal was bad - not that anyone knew, because the coalition refused to let even the federal government see it.

Dr Napthine signed a binding $6.8 billion contract just days before the November 2014 state election campaign started.

It was a foolish move.

Then-opposition leader and now Premier Daniel Andrews' claimed the contract wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

But Labor got it horribly, obviously wrong.

When Mr Andrews won the election he had to pay $642 million to get out of the deal - that's expensive.

The debacle also exposed a disturbing trend of Victorian Treasury officials telling politicians what they wanted to hear.

They didn't warn the Napthine government of the flaws in the East West deal and they didn't warn the Andrews government how it could be saved.

The "frank and fearless" advice the public service is known for went awol.

Between Dr Napthine, Mr Andrews and bureaucrats, Victorians got dudded out of $1.1 billion - and an actual road.

Most of the politicians and officials involved in the saga are still earning large, taxpayer-funded salaries.

Meanwhile, Melbourne's inner north faces at least another decade of gridlock as a major truck and transport route across the city snakes down to a single lane.