Tuesday, 14 October 2025

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (14:35): Christmas has come early. The Metro Tunnel stations are complete, all five underground stations, and there will be hundreds of extra services from December – in fact, as the minister said, 500,000 extra in peak periods. That matters for many reasons. It also matters for major events. One of the reasons we are the major events capital is because you can get to a major event – you do not need a car – by train, by tram or by bus. As a comparison, some of the members in this chamber, including the Premier, went to cheer on Melbourne Storm in our northern state, in Sydney. They had to pack a lunch. They really had a real trek to get there – 16 k’s out of the CBD to Accor Stadium. You have to go into Sydney CBD, get to Central station, catch a train and then catch another train to Accor. I looked at Google Maps, and it said 55 minutes to get to Accor Stadium for the NRL Grand Final. The comparison is that in Melbourne the MCG is 5 minutes from Richmond station and one stop away from the closest Metro Tunnel station. My favourite example is that for the grand prix the member for Cranbourne and the member for Sunbury and everybody in between on that line can now access, with Anzac station, the grand prix circuit without changing one train at all. They can get off at Anzac and walk a few hundred metres to the track. Only in Melbourne will you have that amount of capacity to get people to major events, including the Boxing Day test. The first two days have sold out – 200,000 people already.