Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (10:30): My members statement today is a condemnation of the Allan Labor government’s perpetration of Third World public transport services to the people of Polwarth. Since 1870 we have had a train service where people could have a seat, have food and travel safely to and from Melbourne on a daily basis. Fast-forward to today, to 2025: $15 billion stolen from Victorian taxpayers, a waste of Big Build spending in the city and absolute and utter neglect of people and public transport services in the seat of Polwarth. Today we have 6125 fewer seats a week – 6125 less seats for the people of western Victoria to sit on a train and travel safely to Melbourne each week. What does this mean? This means that on every single train service in western Victoria people are standing for 2 or 3 hours – as long as the train does not break down or come to grief along the journey, which could extend it to 4 or 5 hours standing. People with disabilities, the elderly and others are left stranded. What is worse, the government says to book your seat to make sure you have a seat. And do you know what? They do not enforce the bookings. There are elderly people and disabled people, day in, day out, left to stand for hours.