Wednesday, 15 October 2025

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (19:48): (1346) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I seek is for the minister to update my community on the timeframe for delivery of the new route 886 bus service between Mornington and Hastings as well as long overdue improvements to routes 784 and 785 to deliver bus services to currently unused bus stops. Firstly, my community has been waiting over 10 years now for this service. It takes 1.5 hours to get between Hastings and Mornington via public transport for what is only an 18-minute drive by road. That reflects the fact that 82 per cent of people on the Mornington Peninsula have no access to public transport, and indeed the seats of Mildura and Mornington are the only two electorates in the whole of Victoria with zero passenger rail services altogether. Instead this government is spending $200 billion-plus on the Suburban Rail Loop, which sits as a TBC item on the budget papers in addition to their debt, which is growing up to $194 billion in just a few years time. This Mornington to Hastings bus route is crucial for my residents.

In addition to that I have been advocating for upgrades to routes to service unused bus stops for places like Beleura retirement village, Peninsula Grange retirement village, Mornington holiday park, St Macartan’s Parish Primary School, Mornington Racecourse and elsewhere that have had bus stops for 10 years now, but no buses actually go into those bus stops, so that means thousands of residents are forced to drive when they probably should not or they are stuck in their homes or they just do not have that access to public transport to get out in their community.

Because of this, before the 2022 election I advocated for a commitment by an elected Liberal government to deliver the Mornington to Hastings bus service, rerouting services to those retirement villages and elsewhere with those unused bus stops. Labor did not commit to match that at the time. However, after much pressure after the election, Labor finally committed to those services, but it took a lot of effort. It took a lot of effort to the point that they only actually included funding for the Mornington to Hastings bus service in this year’s budget, and they said that those people in the retirement villages have to wait for a rerouting of their services until the Mornington to Hastings bus route comes to fruition, even though I have said they should not have to wait until that time. I am now calling for them to deliver this as soon as possible. There is no clear timeframe. I know that the Labor government probably wants to roll this out in about October of next year, just before an election, so they can win votes, but my constituents cannot wait any longer.