What it does
The Melbourne City Link Act 1995 (the Act) is the foundational statute enabling the development, operation, and tolling of Melbourne's primary tolled motorway network, now known collectively as CityLink. At its core, the legislation ratifies and gives statutory force to three key commercial agreements between the State of Victoria and private concessionaires: the Agreement for the Melbourne City Link Project (the Agreement, s.3 and Sch. 1 as originally enacted), the Integration and Facilitation Agreement, and the Extension Agreement for the Exhibition Street Extension Project (ss.14, 15A, 15C). These agreements are deemed to have the force of law (s.14(1), s.15A(1), s.15C(1)) and, where inconsistent with the Act or any other Victorian law, prevail (ss.16, 17). The Act thereby facilitates private sector financing, construction, and long-term operation of critical infrastructure that the State could not otherwise deliver within prevailing budgetary constraints.
Functionally, the Act does five things. First, it authorises the reservation, leasing, and licensing of Crown land for the Project, the Link Upgrade Project, and associated works (Part 2A, Part 2B, ss.20A–20G, 22–33, 60, 93G). This includes mechanisms to revoke existing reservations (ss.20A, 20AA, 20BA, 56ZK, 56ZO), issue licences over reserved land (ss.20E, 25), and treat licensed or post-revocation land as if it were leased land for the purposes of operational powers (ss.33, 56ZL, 56ZP). Second, it confers specific road operation and management powers on the Link corporation and Extension corporation (ss.62, 93I), including the power to declare land as a "Link road" or "Extension road" (ss.61, 93H) with the status of a freeway or arterial road under the Road Management Act 2004 (ss.61(4), 93H(3)). These powers are delegated or sub-delegated to operators (ss.12, 12C) and attract the same statutory immunities as Head, Transport for Victoria (s.94).