Wednesday, 2 April 2025

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (09:46): The federal election has only just been called, and already the choice could not be any clearer between the Albanese Labor government, who will build Australia’s future for our communities in Melbourne’s west, and Peter Dutton’s Liberals, who will cut from this future. I was appalled yesterday to hear that if elected, a Dutton government will scrap the additional $2 billion that the feds have committed to delivering the Sunshine station upgrade as part of Melbourne Airport rail. I would say that I am surprised, but this is what the Liberal Party has always done to folks in Melbourne’s west. Of course they did not have the courage to front up in Sunshine to announce this; they did it in a paddock as far away from the city as you could get whilst being able to see the airport.

Let us be absolutely clear here: the $4 billion that will go to this junction alone is absolutely critical to unlocking the complex mix between metro, regional and freight trains that run through Sunshine station. You do not have the airport rail service that Victorians rightly expect without having Sunshine station, and we cannot deliver every other rail improvement to the west – that means electrified services to Melton as well as Wyndham Vale – without this work at Sunshine station being done. Time and time again we see the Liberal Party pretending to care about Melbourne’s west, but at their very core this is who they truly are and what they have always done. If you want to see Sunshine station become a major transport interchange, vote 1 for the Albanese Labor government.