Thursday, 18 August 2022

Ministers statements: Suburban Rail Loop

Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery) (14:15): In the past 24 hours my office has been inundated with calls and emails and contacts urging us to continue to get on and deliver the Suburban Rail Loop.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition!

Ms ALLAN: Monash University, the country’s biggest university, one of the most important health precincts—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Premier! Members, come to order. Members will be removed without warning. I do not want to be having to get up and down all day, so please come to order.

Ms ALLAN: Monash University put out a very simple statement: ‘Monash University supports the Suburban Rail Loop project’. The Eastern Transport Coalition, representing local councils in the suburbs along the Suburban Rail Loop, also put out a statement, expressing:

… alarm at today’s announcement that the State Opposition plans to halt the Suburban Rail Loop project if elected in November.

Why are these councils and why is Monash University saying this? Because they understand, like so many others in the suburbs of Melbourne and anyone who wants to get to those services, why the Suburban Rail Loop is needed. Plus, the Suburban Rail Loop will support thousands of jobs. Indeed there are people working right now in Clayton, in Box Hill on Whitehorse Road, in Burwood and near Monash University. It is these jobs that the Leader of the Opposition, in a shameful, desperate act, wants to cut to protect his own. In closing I would like to quote an article from the Age, 10 August 1968, about the city loop:

Many of the arguments put forward to support the construction of the underground loop line are misleading or irrelevant … The evidence is strong that to proceed with the underground at present would be a serious mistake.

Who pushed on with that project at that time? Henry Bolte. I do not like praising the Bolte government much, but he understood that he had to get on and deliver these city-shaping projects.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for South Barwon, you have been warned once. This is your second warning.