Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Opposition performance

Mr STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (17:47): I join this grievance debate to grieve that those opposite, should they prevail in November—and we certainly hope that they do not—plan on taking the axe to this government’s infrastructure program. It is absolutely in some ways a pleasure to follow the last two speakers from the opposition because they are two speakers who saw the Liberal vote collapse in the booths in their electorates; they are Goldstein-based electorates. I do wish them well for their remaining six months in this place. I would like to quote from their website. Their website says—and you might want to listen to this, member for the ultra-marginal seat of Caulfield:

As part of our Recover Rebuild plan, a Matthew Guy Liberals and—

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Morris): Order! Member for Sunbury!

Mr Southwick: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I understand it is a very wideranging debate and I am very happy to hear what the member for Bentleigh has to say, but I do think that the member should show some respect and address members by their correct titles.

Mr STAIKOS: Given the imputations that have come from that side about members of this side of the house over the last couple of hours, that is a bit rich, but I will carry on. I was quoting from the website of the Victorian Liberal Party:

As part of our Recover Rebuild plan, a Matthew Guy Liberals and Nationals Government will:

Commission an urgent, independent audit of all of Labor’s capital projects over the value of $100 million …

What does that mean? We have heard about these audits before when those opposite come to government. Those opposite plan on wielding their famous axe when it comes to every single level crossing removal, when it comes to the Suburban Rail Loop, when it comes to the North East Link, the West Gate Tunnel and when it comes to all sorts of important infrastructure projects of this state. And this is a government that has embarked on a very ambitious infrastructure agenda, one that we on this side are extremely proud of. I have already listed some of them, but we can add to that the Metro rail tunnel, we can add to that Melbourne Airport rail and we can add to that a whole host of major road upgrades, hospital upgrades, new hospitals, new schools and upgraded schools. You name it, we are doing it.

I grieve that all of this will be put at risk should those opposite prevail in November. Because those opposite are not builders like Labor governments; they are wreckers. They have opposed our infrastructure agenda at every stage, and if they take office, this state will never achieve its full potential. Since 2014 this government’s infrastructure investments have supported or will continue to support more than 191 000 jobs, and there is a total of $184 billion in new and existing projects underway to transform the way people move around this great state. The latest budget papers show that government infrastructure investment is expected to average $21.3 billion a year over the budget and forward estimates, reflecting the continuation of the Big Build in the important areas of health, housing, education, transport and cultural precincts.

In the latest budget we committed to a further $6.7 billion in our capital pipeline, including $2.4 billion in public transport initiatives, $993 million in roads and road safety initiatives and $32 million in dedicated ports and freight initiatives. In the area of transport alone this government has invested more than $97 billion in planning, building, operating and maintaining Victoria’s transport network since being elected in 2014. The latest budget continues this track record, with $3.5 billion invested across the transport network to get people home sooner and safer to spend more time with their families.

Now, I mentioned the metro rail tunnel just before. When I first ran for Parliament in 2014, despite the metro rail tunnel being, in Infrastructure Australia’s opinion, the most urgent public transport infrastructure investment that could possibly be made, the last, lazy Baillieu-Napthine government had shelved it. It had shelved the metro rail tunnel, and that was a major issue when I was campaigning to unseat the Liberal member for Bentleigh of that time. Thankfully we picked the metro rail tunnel up off the floor as soon as we came to government. It will be open in 2025. For my community it will completely transform our access to public transport, because it will actually mean—and we are right in between the Frankston line and the Dandenong line—pretty much a turn-up-and-go system, one where if you are on the Dandenong line you will go straight through the new metro rail tunnel and be connected with currently disconnected parts of the city, like the hospital precinct at Parkville, like the University of Melbourne. If you are on the Frankston line, every single service will go straight through the existing city loop. This is an important investment, one that would not have been made, a project that would not have been undertaken, had they—those opposite—not been turfed out at the 2014 election.

But what have we seen since the 2014 election? We promised in 2014 to remove 50 level crossings. Those opposite said that was a pipe dream, that it was never going to happen. Well, we have now removed 60, and among the first of those 60 were the three in my electorate, at Bentleigh, McKinnon and Ormond. Early works got underway in 2015. The major works got underway in 2016. Those opposite campaigned against those level crossing removals. Georgie Crozier from the other place, who is the person who has been campaigning against—well, undermining—health advice, the shadow minister against health, spent all of 2016 marching up and down Centre Road, Bentleigh, petitioning against level crossing removals. I mean, what planet are these people on?

Then we got to the 2018 election. They decided, ‘Well, we’ve got to try and replicate some of the political success that the Andrews Labor government has had when it comes to level crossing removals’. They decided to release a $5 billion intersection removal policy. Remember that? They announced it and then it just died. It just died after that. They announced it once, and then it just died.

Even though there were two such commitments in the Bentleigh electorate, my opponent of the time, Asher Judah, who is now pretending to be a local in the seat of Ashwood, never campaigned on those intersection removals. Can I just say he probably figured out that removing the intersection of Nepean Highway and South Road might be a bit dicey, because when you start digging at Nepean Highway you might just collide with the rail trench at Moorabbin station. It was such a badly thought out policy, and no wonder as soon as they announced it they did not campaign on it. Goodness help this state if those opposite ever were in charge of major projects. They were not in charge of any major projects when they were in government. They did not commence a single major project. Perhaps their opposition to major projects under this government is because if they end up in government they are not going to be capable of leading any of them.

Now I would like to turn to the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL). Now, why do we need the Suburban Rail Loop? We need the Suburban Rail Loop because Melbourne is one of the great cities of the world. Melbourne, like Tokyo, like London, is a great city of the world, and Melbourne by 2050 or thereabouts is going to be the size of London, so we need an orbital rail network. But it is yet more evidence that those opposite have no vision that they have actually committed to scrap the Suburban Rail Loop. Can I just say, following the election result on Saturday, the Suburban Rail Loop is now a major project that the people of Victoria voted on not once, in 2018, but twice, with the election of the Albanese Labor government, because the Albanese Labor government has committed to an initial $2.2 billion in Suburban Rail Loop east, from Cheltenham to Box Hill. Which federal seat is Box Hill in? Chisholm. Did we win Chisholm on the weekend? We did win Chisholm on the weekend. In fact we won Chisholm well on the weekend, and I congratulate Carina Garland on her election as the federal member for Chisholm.

This is a project that will be the biggest rail project ever built in this state. It will transform our transport network, ensuring our state has a rail network on par with the great cities of the world. It will cut public transport travel time by 40 minutes on average for one-way trips. It will alleviate congestion by removing more than 600 000 daily car trips from the roads; it will carry more than 430 passengers each day, freeing up thousands of seats on existing train services; and it will support up to 8000 direct jobs during construction. But there is an added benefit to this, and that is that through the SRL precincts we will develop Melbourne for the future. We will decentralise Melbourne. We will work with communities right across the Suburban Rail Loop precincts to plan for the future. There is a huge opportunity cost for not delivering population-serving infrastructure like the Suburban Rail Loop—a cost that a Liberal government would force Victorians to pay. I should also mention they are still committed to building the east–west link. Now, the east–west link, in their own business case, showed a loss of 55 cents in every dollar invested in it. The Suburban Rail Loop has a benefit-cost ratio of $1.70, yet they try to tell the people of Victoria that it does not stack up. Well, it does stack up.

I would have hoped that those opposite would have heeded the message sent to them by the people of Victoria on Saturday. It is clear they did not. It is clear by their rhetoric they did not. This week I have heard them talk about CFA, talk about red shirts and they have probably been talking about African gangs and sky rail—remember the anti-sky rail debate?—all of this rubbish. Well, do you know what? They are campaigning like it is 2016. I have been a member of this place for nearly eight years. These are arguments that were prosecuted day in, day out in this chamber way back in 2016. They got their behinds handed to them at the election in 2018, and we are committed to making sure the same happens in November 2022 because the people of Victoria cannot afford a government of little Trumps. That is what they have been. Throughout the pandemic they have behaved like little Trumps.

They have not heeded any message that has been sent to them. The member for Brighton started his contribution saying—

Mr Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I hate to take the wind out of the sails of the member for Bentleigh, but I take personal offence at being referred to in that way.

Mr Fregon: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, it was a collective reference. I believe that is in order.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Morris): There is no point of order.

Mr STAIKOS: Thank you very much, Acting Speaker. It was a collective reference, but given the member for Sandringham raised his head, I would also get him to have a look at the booths in the Sandringham electorate within the seat of Goldstein and maybe use the next six months productively.

Question agreed to.