Tuesday, 14 October 2025

 Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (22:08): (1332) My adjournment is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport. Recently the government announced that it was going to provide free weekend public transport, and that could be hugely problematic. The action I am seeking is for the government to ensure we have the rolling stock to support this policy. I have had a number of photos sent to me over recent months of trains leaving Bairnsdale, three-car sets where passengers are sitting in the aisles or sitting down near the doors. Now we have this announcement that we are going to have free weekend travel over summer, which sounds fantastic, a great vote-grabber, but unless we have got additional rolling stock in place, our trains simply will not be able to cater for this increased patronage. You cannot make this announcement and then not have the rolling stock to support it. I do not know if it exists or there are trains sitting somewhere, but the action I am seeking is for the government to ensure it has the rolling stock on our railways to support this new policy.