Ministers statements: Suburban Rail Loop
Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (14:06): I rise to update the house on the progress in delivering the city-shaping Suburban Rail Loop. On this side of the house we know the Suburban Rail Loop is essential to delivering more homes in areas with access to jobs and services. Construction is underway, as the Premier just said, and the project is on the way to creating up to 8000 direct jobs and supporting up to 24,000 jobs during construction. 1260 workers are already working on this project, and by 2026 there will be more than 4000 people on the job. At Burwood, in the member for Ashwood’s electorate, piling work is almost complete and excavation is ready to start on the tunnel-boring machine launch site. In Box Hill, in the member for Box Hill’s electorate – there he is – tram relocation works are finished, and we are establishing a compound for main works. Not to be left out, the member for Sandringham will not have long to wait. Site establishment works are about to get underway at the site of the new Cheltenham SRL station.
When those opposite say they will cancel SRL, they are saying they will sack 4000 workers, they will cancel 24,000 jobs, they will make it harder for young people to find affordable housing and they will ignore what Victorians have voted for twice. While we focus on delivering the projects Victorians need, those opposite are hiding and counting their numbers. I will give you a tip: it is not like in tennis, you cannot go from 0 to 15 to 30; you have got to count them one by one, member for the Nepean – one by one. We are getting on and creating thousands of construction jobs. The only jobs those opposite are interested in are their own.