Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Public transport fares

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:22): (1158) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I seek is for the minister to update my community on the benefits of the free kids public transport policy that has been announced in the state budget. This one is an absolute banger for the Mordialloc electorate. This is one of the highest populated education areas in the state. The Mentone education precinct has so many students coming up and down the Frankston train line and on buses accessing their place of education, some of the best education facilities and teachers you will see in the state. So to have an announcement that looks at how we support families during cost-of-living times and to make sure students are supported is truly inspiring policy, and I thank the Premier and the Minister for Public and Active Transport for announcing this policy, because it will benefit so many families in my community.

If you spend enough time in my patch and you go to Mordialloc train station, you will see kids at Mordialloc College getting off or you will see Parkdale Secondary kids getting off to go on their destination. They have got there normally on a yearly ticket, because they are going up and down each and every day. That on average per student is about $755. That is a parent or a grandparent or guardian who is having to fork out that amount – money that they have had to find during some of the more challenging times in the family budgets to make ends meet. And then you go to Parkdale train station, you see St Bede’s and Kilbreda legends going north towards Mentone, Mentone Grammar kids, Mentone Girls’ Grammar. If you go a bit further up towards Mentone, you have got Mentone Girls’ Secondary College students and you have got Beaumaris Secondary College students. And then to the north some of the constituents go to Cheltenham Secondary College.

One thing is consistent and clear: the impact it has on school budgets, with uniforms and books and all the essentials that help our kids learn. They will be met with some of the school saving bonus payments that we have had as well to support communities. At the same time, those transport costs have been a huge impact. To think, for a family of three kids who are travelling up and down the Frankston train line, that that may save up to $2,200 per year is absolutely amazing. It will make such a massive difference and make sure that we are taking pressure off Victorian families when they need it most.

We think about all the school upgrades that have been had through that area. We are making sure that our schools have the very best facilities – first-class facilities to match the first-class education that we are supporting families with the cost of living when they need it most. They know that the Premier and the public transport minister and me as the proud member for Mordialloc are on their side when they need it most. We are focused on doing what matters for communities and focused on what is important for our families. I am pretty pumped about this one, and I am looking forward to an update from the Minister for Public and Active Transport on the free kids transport policy.