Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2024‒25 Budget Estimates

Jess WILSON (Kew) (10:45): I rise to make a contribution on the report on the 2024–25 budget estimates by the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee tabled on 31 October 2024. Today I wish to draw the house’s attention to one particular finding of the committee. Finding 46 states that:

The total estimated investment (TEI) of almost half of the Department of Transport and Planning’s existing capital projects had changed in the 2024–25 Budget compared to the previous budget. The TEI of the North East Link accounts for $10.4 billion.

Just as this total estimated investment continues to change under the Allan Labor government’s complete mismanagement of our major projects – nearly $50 billion worth of cost blowouts to date – so do the specifics of the projects themselves. In terms of the North East Link, it is causing great concern for my local constituents. In September 2024 the Minister for Planning signed off on the urban design and landscape plan for the North East Link freeway upgrades between Burke Road and Tram Road. Attachment 5 to this document – on page 69 to be precise – shows the noise walls to be installed along the freeway around the intersection of Bulleen Road in North Balwyn. I reiterate that this is the version of the UDLP signed off by the minister in 2024. You can imagine the alarm of many North Balwyn residents then when in May this year the North East Link Program letterboxed a pamphlet containing a diagram of the noise walls that differed, in some cases quite substantially, from the original UDLP that had been signed off by the minister. In particular, a noise wall extending some way south along Bulleen Road has been completely removed. Other sections of the noise walls that were listed as being 10 metres high in the UDLP are now listed as being in the range of 3 to 9 metres. There are various other apparent inconsistencies between the UDLP and the May 2025 update that I could share with the house.

The minister has given me assurances in this place on the many times that I have raised concerns around the North East Link and the construction phase and the fact that it continues to cause a great, great impact on local residents – much as a result of the complete mismanagement of the project. We have seen, obviously, the mismanagement of the project when it comes to the cost blowouts, but what has become apparent throughout the construction phase is the complete unwillingness of the North East Link Program and the minister and the government at large to actually listen to the concerns of my local residents and to ensure that there is transparency around decision-making on this project – a project that is going to cost Victorian taxpayers $26 billion. It started off at $5 billion as a promise, escalated to $10 billion, escalated again to $16 billion and then overnight the Premier announced another $10 billion project. A piece of road that is one of the most expensive in the world is having massive ramifications for my local community in terms of the construction phase and the ongoing impacts of what is going to be a major road network in Melbourne, and my constituents time and time again get no answers from this government, get no support from this government.

I have raised this with the minister a number of times, and I have shared her response with residents who live in the affected areas along Bulleen Road, and they are unconvinced to say the least. Having reviewed the UDLP myself, I can understand how these goalposts have been shifted without any community consultation – a hallmark of the Allan Labor government. I will be holding a forum to hear directly from the residents about their concerns in relation to these apparent changes. I extend an invitation to the minister to come and to hear directly about the impact that the change to the noise walls will have on residents’ local amenity, on their ability to enjoy their own homes. It is my hope that the government will be willing to work and to uphold their promise to local residents that the noise walls will be installed to a standard that ensures that they can continue to enjoy their homes and their lives. This is a government that fails to listen, and it is time it started listening and responding to resident feedback.