Ministers statements: Metro Tunnel
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:44): Later this year the largest transport project in our state’s history, the Metro Tunnel, will open up – five brand new stations, turn-up-and-go services, a direct link for Victorians across our great city. It will change the way we move, getting people home safer, sooner and more reliably. But it is not just about how people will travel around our great city and state; it is also about where they live, because transport and housing go hand in hand. This is a project that connects suburbs, unlocks land and clears the way for thousands of new homes for people in places exactly where they want to live – new communities around new train stations, places where, for example, young people could buy their first home or families could live closer to schools and jobs or could stay in the neighbourhoods they love. For example, at Arden, one of the sites of our beautiful new stations, thousands of homes will rise along that beautiful brand new station. Also, through our plans that we released today to connect 50 train and tram zones, 12 of these will be directly connected to the Metro Tunnel. It will mean more services and more homes around stations like Oakleigh, Caulfield, Tottenham, Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Hughesdale and West Footscray. In total, our train and tram zones will create the space for 300,000 more homes over the coming decade.
Only Labor has invested in the Metro Tunnel. Only Labor has backed the Metro Tunnel every single step of the way. There are some who called it a hoax. There are some who said it would be an absolute disaster. There are some who said they would refuse to fund it.
Members interjecting.
Jacinta ALLAN: I will tell you who it was, Leader of the National Party: it was the Liberal Party and the National Party who refused to back the Metro Tunnel. Well, it is opening later this year. It is real, it is delivering more train services and it is going to support more homes exactly in the right locations.