Spain, France protest Australia's Victorian gov't over broken road promise

Australia's Victorian government has faced criticism from Spanish and French government representatives regarding the decision to dump the controversial East West Link road plan on Tuesday.

French company Bouygues and Spanish company Acciona were given the rights to build the 5.17 billion U.S dollar toll road back in September 2014, but the plan was put on hold indefinitely by the state Labor government which came to power last November.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas confirmed that he had received a complaint from the Spanish and French embassies, but he said the government would remain "resolute" in its decision not to go ahead with the plan.

He said that he was acting in the interests of the Victorian taxpayer, and while he would listen to the international consortiums' complaints, the decision to scrap the plan would stay.

"They might not like the way that we're proceeding with it, but I make no apology for protecting the interests of the Victorian taxpayer," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"We will work constructively with the consortium, this is not a never-ending process, and we are intending to bring this matter to a rapid conclusion."

The East West Link was to connect a tunnel from one side of Melbourne to the other, and construction was supposed to begin late last year before the project was unceremoniously scrapped by Daniel Andrews' government.

Bouygues and Acciona are pushing for a payout to the tune of 835 million U.S dollars, but the government has been on record stating that it would not cave to paying the companies for the canceled work.

Any potential payout to the European companies would need to be factored into the state budget to be delivered in May, and Pallas is confident a deal would be reached before then.

"I expect this to be resolved by the budget (on May 5)," he said. Endi