Wednesday, 1 April 2026

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (19:08): (1623) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I seek is that the minister take immediate action to fix the capacity and timetabling issues on the Gippsland line and in my communities across Narracan. Deputy Speaker, if you can indulge me, I would like to read an email sent to me by Andrea, one of my local constituents:

I am a nurse at Warragul hospital.

For myself to start a shift at 7:00am I can not get a train to Warragul as it skips the stop and it would require me to drive to Drouin or Garfield when you consider the extra 5–10 min of my driving it’s not worth my effort.

It is a similar situation for our son that attends school in Warragul at CCG so he is driven there to be able to have the extra rest and also so he is not having to loiter around Warragul for an hour or more in Warragul before school starts he however does catch the train home.

It is one thing to announce free public transport, but it is another thing not to have the infrastructure to support that announcement.

Quite frankly, on the Gippsland line it does not matter whether you get on the train at Bairnsdale or you get on the train at Southern Cross. If you get on the train at Southern Cross station, you get to Richmond and the train is full. It is standing room only. The fact of the matter is we are meant to have six carriages. We only have three. That is not enough for regional Victorians to go to work in Melbourne and get home, having to stand the whole way. The one thing this government has failed to do, especially in regional Victoria, is address the public transport issues. But it is typical of this government. They make an announcement. They only think about the city or the outer suburbs. They do not think about the consequences in regional Victoria – and regional Victorians spend more on fuel than city people, because we have longer distances to travel. What I am saying is: if you are going to make the announcement, have the infrastructure to back it up. That is what needs to happen.

The fact of the matter is it is the same across everything in my electorate, whether it is a hospital that still has not been delivered, sporting facilities that are never even considered or roads that are in rack and ruin, and now it is the public transport system. I have written to the minister time and time again about the public transport issues in my electorate. My constituents have had a gutful of it. I have had a gutful of it, and I would like some answers and some action on the public transport issues in Narracan.