Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Transport infrastructure

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (16:46): I am going to spend my next 15 minutes talking about how much I would grieve for the people of Victoria if the Liberals–Nationals were ever to get back into power, because the cuts to our public transport would be deep and long lasting. It has always been said here in this place that the Victorian Liberal Party have never met any infrastructure project they liked. I think that pretty much sums up the approach that those opposite take when it comes to the transport infrastructure projects that are absolutely transforming our state as we speak. I grieve at the prospect of what would happen to Victoria’s public transport system should those opposite ever return to government with the attitude they have towards public transport in Victoria. There is always a reason. In the past almost seven years that I have been here I have heard many reasons, but there is always a reason for them to cut, to scrap or to absolutely gut projects that are important to Victorians.

Labor has been in government here in Victoria now for over a decade. The phrase that comes to mind for me and that people think of when it comes to what we have been able to achieve in that time is our 2018 slogan that we went to the election with, and that was ‘Getting things done’. Some of you may remember that. When I am out talking to people in my community they talk about how we are doing things and what they can see, and we are making a difference because we are getting things done. They can see new schools being built across Melbourne’s west. They can see the work crews out on the rail lines, removing level crossings and getting us moving. And they can see the big cranes. I see so many of them on our major road projects.

2025 will bring to an end construction on two of our government’s flagship infrastructure projects, the Metro Tunnel and the West Gate Tunnel. When these projects do in fact open – and I am going to be reminding my community – it is going to be worth remembering that neither of these projects have ever been backed or have ever been supported by the opposition, not once. Back in 2017 they moved a motion in the other place to give Stonnington City Council – conveniently and historically a strong Liberal-leaning council – the power to stop the Metro Tunnel from proceeding. Can you believe that? Imagine stopping the Metro Tunnel from proceeding. Those opposite, when they actually have the opportunity to go and use and check out the new stations as part of Metro Tunnel, will be absolutely overwhelmed, because it is an incredible piece of infrastructure. It has taken a long time to build, but it is going to be so worth it. Imagine if those opposite had actually stopped the Metro Tunnel from happening.

If you cast your mind back, they called the tunnel – get this – a hoax and said it was all smoke and mirrors. They said it would be an absolute disaster and – get this; I love this bit – it would divide the city like the Berlin Wall. This is the mentality of those opposite. Thank God for all of us that motion failed, because even now they complain about the fact that certain trains will not fit in the Metro Tunnel, as if they did not realise that we designed and we ordered a specific type of high-capacity metro train precisely for running through this tunnel and that we safety-proofed the platforms at the station with platform screen doors so that people could not fall off the platforms or, worse, throw themselves in front of a train. It is kind of like Paris.

At times I have been down to view Parkville station – which, by the way, and I know members on this side of the house have been down there, is absolutely incredible. I have taken a few people from my community lately, and there is one thing that strikes them, particularly the younger kids at school – Sunshine College in fact. Two young boys, both doing engineering next year – or hoping to – at Melbourne Uni, could not believe that the screen doors would open and close. It was absolutely amazing. This is the type of technology that is going into these five brand new stations. It is a complete indictment of those opposite’s understanding in fact of transport policy, and these lines were regurgitated by their transport spokesman. Who was that? Does anyone remember? Does the member for Bulleen, sitting at the table this afternoon, remember? A self-styled gunzel, I hear, who could not wrap his head around this project if he tried. But what I do know about the member for Bulleen is when he goes down and he gets to use that Metro Tunnel for the first time with his family and his children, that experience will be incredible. I hope the member for Bulleen has as much fun as the Connolly family.

But let me get started on the West Gate Tunnel. In 2018 those opposite teamed up with the Greens for another motion, can you believe, in the other place to stop works on the West Gate Tunnel. The West Gate Tunnel is a project that will save my community in Melbourne’s west 20 minutes on their morning and afternoon commute by taking trucks – the member for Bulleen’s family will love it, guaranteed. He can ride it with the Connolly family. It will save folks in Melbourne’s west 20 minutes on their morning and afternoon commute by taking trucks and heavy vehicles off the West Gate Bridge. It is going to just basically unlock the traffic, the gridlock of traffic, that westies have been in for far too long. Those opposite wanted to scrap the project.

I think of road projects that have been done in my electorate, like our government’s $1.8 billion western roads project – projects that those opposite could never have conjured up, never have thought about, never have funded, never have built, never have opened or driven down, on roads like Leakes, Palmers, Derrimut, Dohertys and the Forsyth Road interchange, which, by the way, is one of my favourites, because it has the best fluoro yellow overpass. I do not know who chose that colour, but you could see that from the moon. It is absolutely huge, and I think about it every time I drive under it, which is almost on a weekly basis on the way to my electorate. It is amazing.

But what amazes me most is the difference that these works have made in getting around just in my little patch, my little hood of Melbourne’s west; they have made it so much easier to get around. And you know that road improvements like these were not on the agenda when they were last in government. When it comes to projects they do tactically support, like Melbourne Airport rail, the Liberal Party still cannot commit to the full deal. I have spoken enough in this place about how the federal Liberal Party were going to scrap the $2 billion in funding for the Sunshine station superhub, and I will continue to thank Melbourne’s western suburbs for voting overwhelmingly for the Australian Labor Party at the federal election most recently. They voted in droves to keep the $2 billion in funding for Sunshine station superhub. And where did the Liberal Party want to send the $2 billion for the Sunshine station superhub? Guess. Well, folks in the south-east will not want to guess, but westies will know they were going to send it to projects in the south-east. One of the most revered projects that westies needed they wanted to rip the guts out of – $2 billion – and send across the bridge into the south-east. Well, that did not work for them, did it? Of course the other side of this announcement was that their funding would be matched by a future – I love this – Battin Liberal government. I wonder if the Leader of the Opposition and those opposite would take the same approach – I suspect they would – to my much beloved Sunshine station and gut the heart out of airport rail. That is essentially what gutting the Sunshine station superhub would do. Let me explain. The Sunshine superhub is the absolutely critical first step to electrifying the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines and separating those services from existing regional rail lines.

I am sure I have heard some of their members talk about some of these projects. They try and talk a big game, those opposite, about these two lines, so I felt absolutely curious to see if they would set them back by a decade by watering down Sunshine station as part of airport rail. They have talked a big game these past couple of years about Melbourne’s west, and they have tried to create a narrative of neglect and complained that local infrastructure has not kept up in areas like Wyndham, where – and it is a shame the member for Bulleen has left – 11 precinct structure plans were approved by their last planning minister, the member for Bulleen, without correlating any future investment in public transport infrastructure. Can you imagine what that would do to folks who moved into the 11 PSPs? They are living out there now. Some of the really tough conversations that we have around transport and getting around that local area are a legacy of the past Liberal–National government. The challenges we face out in Melbourne’s west – I have said before and I am going to say it all the way to the election ‍– were because of some of the worst urban planning policies, and yet all of the opportunities we have for improvement and renewal have come from a Labor government. Whether it was the Andrews Labor government or the now Allan Labor government, they have come from Labor.

I would be remiss if I did not mention a favourite of so many people, and I do not talk about having favourites too often, but as someone who has seen quite a few level crossings in my previous and my current electorate removed, the level crossing removal projects that we have been undertaking deserve a mention here. The Werribee line is going to be level crossing free, and that means the Wyndham community and the Laverton community are going to be level crossing free. That is something folks love and they continue to vote for time and time again. All of these crossings were removed in the last term of government, but what you may have missed is that at the 2018 election the Liberal Party – I still cannot believe this – were going to scrap all of these projects. Do you know what they were going to scrap them in the name of? It is pretty relevant to the member for Brighton’s contribution today about the budget. They were going to cut them in the name of budget savings. Wyndham locals and the folks in Laverton could have kissed their level crossing removals goodbye if the Libs had gotten into power back then. Folks in Wyndham would know that they would probably still be stuck behind the boom gates in Werribee, the boom gates in Hoppers and the boom gates in Laverton. I imagine we would not even be talking, and I am looking at the member for Melton, about the Melton level crossing projects, which – you would not believe it – are underway right now.

I cannot not mention the mother of all infrastructure projects they opposed: our government’s flagship Suburban Rail Loop. I remember when the project was first announced all the way back in 2018. It was a bold, ambitious plan that we knew would take decades to fully realise, but it was the kind of important forward thinking that Victorians rightly expect us to be considering and expect governments to be considering when they are in fact in government. You cannot be in government and not build one single public transport project here in this state. When we came to government in 2014 the walls and the bookshelves were completely empty and devoid of any project, devoid of any vision, devoid of any future investment for the folks living in the 11 PSPs out in Wyndham and God knows where else.

What I will do is finish with this: just a few weeks ago Victorians resoundingly sent the Liberal Party packing out of Melbourne, and they broke the coalition. The coalition have been left with just two urban electorates in Melbourne, one of which is more peri-urban. Next year we go to the polls, and we go to the polls with major projects completed and more under construction. Our government has a long-term vision for Victoria. We have our challenges – yes, we do – but we meet them. Most importantly, we meet them with opportunities. I will put that vision and that ambition against the paralysis of those opposite any day of the week, time and time again. They may think they are in with a bit of a shot, but what my community and I know is that if all they promise are cuts and further paralysis, which I think we saw today in the member for Brighton’s delivery of his budget reply, those opposite are going to be in for one hell of a shock next year.