Wednesday, 2 August 2023
Questions without notice and ministers statements
Ministers statements: Metro Tunnel
Ministers statements: Metro Tunnel
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop) (14:07): For workers across the Andrews Labor government’s Big Build program it has been a very, very busy winter period where progress has been going rapidly. 72 dangerous and congested level crossings have been removed. Work on the West Gate Tunnel, work on the North East Link, and just last week –
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will come to order.
Jacinta ALLAN: I know the Leader of the Opposition will want to talk over this milestone. Just last week the Metro Tunnel had its very first test train running through the Metro Tunnel. This is the biggest milestone yet on this project, and it is going to transform, for decades to come, the way people move around our city and state. I would like to acknowledge the work of Sheena Begbie, the first person – the first young woman – who drove the very first train through the Metro Tunnel, and a shout-out to those thousands and thousands of workers who have been working around the clock to support this major milestone. Now, there was a major milestone on the Metro Tunnel between 2010 and 2014. It was scrapped. There was a major milestone, there was a major decision by those opposite to scrap the Metro Tunnel, to not proceed with the Metro Tunnel – the Metro Tunnel that is going to transform the city and state.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! Assistant Treasurer, you are warned. Leader of the Opposition, I have asked you to stop interjecting across the table. It is very difficult to hear the Deputy Premier. Leader of the House, I ask you to also cease interjecting across the table.
Jacinta ALLAN: We have pushed on with the Metro Tunnel because it is going to provide for the connection of the Sunbury–Pakenham line, a 97-kilometre level-crossing-free corridor that will provide for more trains on the corridor, more trains across the rest of the network – a project we are pushing on with, as opposed to those opposite who walked away from this vital project.