Suburban Rail Loop
David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:13): My question is to the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. The annual reports of the SRL authority show the government has spent over $126 million to move a 630-metre sewer pipe, shift some water pipes and establish a site for workers. At a time when Victorians are doing it tough, how is paying over $126 million to move some pipes and set up a worksite value for money?
Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (14:14): This is an incredibly bold and ambitious project that is going to have a long life span. In relation to the way in which we construct this infrastructure through, effectively, brownfield sites, it is a huge project, and it is going to require an enormous amount of detailed design and detailed work in relation to those services relocation in order to build a tunnel. The reality is that if you have got existing services that may have been in this location for 100 years, you just simply have to move them before you can do this important work.
This is an incredibly important project, because the reality is that by 2050, Melbourne will have the population of London. Why that is important is that cities of that size like London do not have one CBD – they tend to have multiple CBDs. Therefore you need to have orbital movements to be able to move from one part of the city to the other. We will not be a hub-and-spoke city; we are going to have more of those orbital movements, which is why the Suburban Rail Loop is so important –
David Southwick: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, I ask if you could ask the minister to please come back to answering the question. This is –
A member interjected.
David Southwick: I haven’t finished.
The SPEAKER: Order! On the point of order.
David Southwick: On relevance, this is not The Castle’s ‘I dug a hole’. This is a lot more than that, and $126 million is not value for money within a cost-of-living crisis.
The SPEAKER: Member for Caulfield, there is no point of order.
Danny PEARSON: This project will generate $58.7 billion worth of economic activity to the state of Victoria. It is a huge project, so we need to do this early work in order to realise those huge benefits that the Victorian community will experience.
David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:16): According to the latest report there are 78 executives in the authority, 56 of whom are being paid $240,000 a year or more, with the CEO being paid more than $500,000. At a time when Victorians are doing it tough, how can the minister justify these extravagant salaries?
Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (14:17): This project is a complex project, because as you would appreciate, you are tunnelling through brownfield developments where you are going to have to move those services, and you are building rail infrastructure so you need experts who can do that. We have got six particular precincts we are building, so it is about making sure we do the right work, because each precinct will be different. We need to do the precinct structure planning work around that to make sure these are vibrant and diverse and sustainable communities. When you have got a project of this size, this scale and this breadth, which has been overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of Victoria on two separate occasions, there is a need to make sure –
David Southwick: On a point of order, Speaker, I will ask if you could bring the minister back to the question again. It is about the waste of taxpayers money and value for money in a cost-of-living crisis.
The SPEAKER: Member for Caulfield, that is not a point of order.
Danny PEARSON: Unlike those opposite who wasted every day they held office for four years, we are not wasting a day; we are getting on with it. This is a great project, and it is going to deliver enormous benefits for the people of Victoria.