Wednesday, 14 May 2025

Federal election

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (10:02): The federal election has come and gone and what a result it was. I wholeheartedly congratulate the Albanese Labor government on securing a resounding second term – our strongest election victory this century – and I want to congratulate my federal colleagues Tim Watts and Daniel Mulino on their successful re-election to serving my constituents in Laverton back in Canberra. I am particularly proud of the efforts in Fraser to fend off a strong challenge by the Greens, who have seen an absolute collapse nationwide.

More importantly, I want to celebrate the resounding message that Melbourne’s west sent to Peter Dutton. He came to our state and he promised to gut the heart out of Sunshine by scrapping the Sunshine super-hub. Westies saw right through it and saw the same old Liberal Party, who now pretend to care about our community in the west but still want to cut and starve us of the funding and projects we need, time and time again. On several booths across my electorate I heard reports of Liberal Party volunteers handing out for the wrong candidate. On one booth where I was handing out they were not there at all. There were no signs and no volunteers – that is the level of disrespect that this party shows our community in Melbourne’s west, and I for one am absolutely sick of them talking down our communities. They have no commitments to infrastructure and no policies to improve our communities or address our issues – absolutely nothing on offer from the party. They have certainly paid for it with a major collapse right across Melbourne and indeed in every capital city in this nation. I look forward to seeing the Albanese Labor government in – (Time expired)