Wednesday, 31 August 2022

Metro Tunnel

Mr RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:09): (6519) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure and Deputy Premier. The action I seek is for the minister to update my community on the benefits and progress of the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel for the Mordialloc constituency. It is hard to comprehend a Melbourne without the city loop. Conceived in 1929 and delivered with the opening of Flagstaff station in 1985, it really transformed Melbourne and brought it to being a modern, livable city.

In years to come it will be unconscionable to think of Melbourne without the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel, a project delivered solely by the Andrews Labor government, fully funded by the state and transforming the way we get around our community. When we think about the growing population out in the south-eastern suburbs, and particularly among the communities along the Frankston line and along the Cranbourne-Pakenham line, we need to make sure that we are encouraging more people onto our public transport system. One in eight people in our communities catch public transport, and 15 per cent of emissions in our state are from cars, so we need to look not only at the livability in our state and more access to public transport but also climate action. That is why people want to see bold, ambitious policies where we invest in rail. The Melbourne Metro rail tunnel—I have had the chance to tour a couple of stations. I joined some colleagues from the south-east to check out Arden station a little while ago and the progress there and recently Town Hall station, 28 metres below Flinders Street. To see that progress—all the thousands of workers and all the industries that have been supported—has been truly extraordinary.

When you think that the Suburban Rail Loop is just around the corner—construction is underway now; early works have begun. It will take something like 600 000 vehicles off metropolitan roads—a substantial environmental policy. It is a substantial policy that connects our cities, linking up education precincts and employment precincts. It is going to be hard to comprehend Melbourne without the Suburban Rail Loop and all the benefits it would deliver for the Frankston and Cranbourne-Pakenham lines, linking up those health settings and employment settings. We are really excited in the Mordialloc electorate by the progress of the Suburban Rail Loop and the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel.

To think when we came to government in 2014 it seemed a long way away, the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel. But you have got to make decisions not just in election cycles but for the future, and that is what the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel delivers. In just over two years time we will be opening up the brand new stations and the new train line, and it is just part of the delivery that we are providing to our local community. I am really pumped for the transport infrastructure minister and Deputy Premier to update my community on the benefits of the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel and the progress towards supporting my constituents on the Frankston and Cranbourne-Pakenham train lines.