Thursday, 16 October 2025

 Gabrielle WILLIAMS (Dandenong – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for Public and Active Transport) (14:29): This week we have been talking about the Metro Tunnel, an absolute game changer not only for our city but for our entire state. It is important to talk about what it means for our regions, because we are not just a government that delivers for the city, we are a government that delivers for every single Victorian. The Metro Tunnel means that for, say, a St Kilda Road worker living in Drouin, they can change once at, say, Dandenong or Caulfield, jump on a turn-up-and-go service and get to work on a train. For a young person in Ballan or Lara, it means changing once at, say, Sunshine or Footscray to get on a high-capacity metro train straight into Melbourne Uni. Victorians living on the Bendigo line can now change just once and get to, say, the Parkville medical precinct for work, to get world-class treatment or to visit a loved one. Again with just one change they can get onto one of the more than 1000 additional services we will be adding to that Cranbourne–Pakenham to Sunbury corridor from 1 February next year.

This is real change and better connections for all Victorians. It builds on our upgrades to every single regional passenger line in Victoria, with more than a thousand weekly services added to the V/Line network since 2014. And because 89 per cent of our regional services connect with that Metro Tunnel corridor, from 1 February there will be new regional train and coach timetables coming to make sure that regional Victorians can better access the new turn-up-and-go services that we will be delivering on that Cranbourne–Pakenham to Sunbury corridor.

When those opposite called this project a hoax, they were not just denying new connections to city dwellers but making life harder for regional Victorians too. It has been some time since Jeff Kennett sat at this table, but his spirit and his attitude towards regional Victoria lives on in those opposite.