Rowville electorate
Kim WELLS (Rowville) (14:46): (584) My question is to the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop: why is the government spending $216 billion towards a redundant rail loop when constituents in Rowville still have no train line to travel to and from Melbourne? With Melbourne expecting to reach a population of over 6 million people past 2030 and outer suburbs like Rowville being expected to bear the brunt of this population surge, the government ought to be addressing the serious issue of public transport in places like Rowville. $475 million was funded by the federal Liberals for stage 1 of the project from Caulfield to Monash University, with stage 2 being committed to once the state Labor government matched the funding. Typically, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and federal Labor in its first budget made it pretty clear that federal Labor has no interest in providing public transport for the residents of Rowville and cut the funding for Rowville rail.