Wednesday, 1 November 2023

 Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (10:32): I too rise to talk about the 2023–24 Public Accounts and Estimates Committee budget estimates report, which I was very pleased to be a part of. I think the member for Gippsland South previously summarised it as an excellent report, and I do agree with his conclusion. It did take a significant amount of work from all parties and all participants in that process.

I specifically want to talk today about chapter 6, which is ‘Department of Transport and Planning’. First I will reflect on the infrastructure program. It is identified that the total infrastructure program is now $43 billion, $33.8 billion of which is in the department’s existing infrastructure program, with another $9.2 billion of total estimated investment in new projects. This is just a summary of the enormous investment in transport infrastructure. I can see the Minister for Transport Infrastructure has just stepped into the room. He has carriage of this very important portfolio, which for many years – for the life of the Andrews government – has been delivering for communities across the state, particularly including my own community of Box Hill, through the level crossing removal program and also now going on to the North East Link and the Suburban Rail Loop. It is a very sizeable program, and it is delivering an enormous amount of benefits for our state.

There are a couple of really important recommendations that are within this chapter. The first ones I want to look at are recommendations 28 and 29. Recommendation 28 recommends the introduction of two new performance measures that report on the number of new zero-emission buses that are added to metropolitan and regional bus networks, and recommendation 29 recommends the introduction of an objective indicator in the 2024–25 budget that reports on zero emissions as a proportion of all operational buses in the Victorian fleet.

As you may remember, I think it was probably in 2021 that the then Minister for Public Transport made the announcement that from 2025 all purchases of buses would be zero-emission buses. The bus fleet obviously does make a significant contribution to our emissions. Just the nature of the capital investment required with a bus means you will be having that bus on the road for many, many years, so this is a long-term investment. It takes a long time for the whole fleet to be renewed. It is pleasing to see the investment from the government and industry as well is not just waiting until 2025. There has already been a take-up of the manufacture of zero-emission buses. I think it is a really strong recommendation to identify how we are going to be tracking against that target and to identify how the number and proportion of zero-emission buses will grow into the future.

The other particular area that I would like to focus on within this chapter is the ports and freight area, and I see that the minister responsible, the Minister for Ports and Freight, is at the table as well. It talks specifically about the mode shift incentive scheme. I did have some involvement with the mode shift incentive scheme when it was initially introduced, as a staff member in the department at that time. It has provided a really important incentive over its decade of operation, particularly to regional operators. I am glad to see that while that program is ending the department is looking at other measures.