Wednesday, 30 October 2024

 Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (14:15): On this side of the house we know that more homes means more opportunities. That is the reason why we are delivering the Suburban Rail Loop, Australia’s largest housing project. Melbourne and Victoria continue to grow. Melbourne is going to have a population the size of London by the 2050s, and that means a stronger economy, a more vibrant community and more opportunities. It means we need thousands more homes in the places people want to live and near the things that they need and the people that they love, and the Suburban Rail Loop is going to deliver just that. It means new housing built on the doorstep of world-class, quality educational precincts. It is going to mean housing close to local jobs, services and open spaces nearby. It is going to deliver a massive 70,000 homes in the first stage alone, and as our population continues to grow, more Victorians will have the ability to expand their families.

The Allan Labor government is building for the future and setting Victoria up for the next generation, while those opposite bury their heads in the sand. We want to create more opportunities for young people and we want to put more millennials into homes so that our kids and our grandkids know that owning a home is within their grasp. The Suburban Rail Loop is going to completely change Melbourne forever. It is going to change how we move, how we work, how we live and the communities that we live in. Those who want to block the project are blocking the homes. They would rather do nothing. They would rather simply take the easy way out. But we are not blockers. I want to be clear on this: we are not blockers, we are builders. We are delivering this project to deliver more homes because we simply cannot afford not to do this. We are going to take 600,000 cars a day off Melbourne roads when we build this project. We are going to make sure that we build better homes, better communities and better access to transport and more opportunities. That is what Victorians have elected us to do, and that is what we will deliver.