Wednesday, 3 June 2026

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (17:45): I cannot hold back; I am just so excited to stand up here tonight to participate in this grievance debate. I wholeheartedly grieve for Victorians, particularly people in my community in Melbourne’s west. The previous speaker from over there likes to follow along the epic Labor stories in Melbourne’s west, but I grieve for people in my community whose lives, let us face it, would be a whole lot worse off if those opposite, with their plans for deep, vicious cuts to services and infrastructure, were elected to govern in November.

Just a few weekends ago Victorians got to see the difference. They got to see the difference between our Labor government and those opposite, how we approach government, what we fight for and, most importantly, what we believe in. The Premier, at our state conference, spoke about opportunity. She spoke about helping more young Victorians into jobs, announcing 2000 electrician apprenticeships that will be offered through the SEC. Those are 2000 jobs and opportunities particularly for young people. That same weekend – I feel like it was the same day – those opposite had a little bit of a conference of their own. What did they talk about? They talked about cuts to regional schools in Victoria.

I thought this was particularly interesting because I spent a bit of time recently, as the chair of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, listening to budget estimates as we undertook the public inquiry into the Victorian state budget, and the Nationals and Liberal Party members on that committee asked a lot of questions about regional Victoria and school funding in regional Victoria. I have to say, when I heard about their cuts that they intend to make to regional schools in Victoria, I thought they really did not listen to one single answer that was provided to them, nor did they understand the evidence that was being given to them. Cuts to regional schools in Victoria are telling for a number of reasons about those opposite and what is in their DNA. We all know that if they are openly talking about cuts to the regions, those cuts will be even more savage in Melbourne and in Melbourne’s west.

Nowhere will they be felt more keenly than in my community in the district of Laverton. We have already seen a little bit – just a little something, something; a preview – of what those cuts might look like, and I have got to tell you that it does not look good. It is just so great to have the member for Bulleen here. He would remember when he was on ABC radio and he said really proudly – and I remember he was really proud, because I was having a cup of tea at the time and I burnt my mouth because I thought he had made an error, but he has not corrected that error. He said very proudly that he would remove trains from the Wyndham Vale line and the Melton line and he would divert them to the Warrnambool and Traralgon lines. I burnt my mouth. I was listening so closely. It was just extraordinary. Excess services he called them, and he admitted, which I thought was unbelievable, that it would leave these lines thin. Those opposite have always talked a big game about Melbourne’s west. Their history, however, will tell you exactly what they delivered for Melbourne’s west, and that was nothing. It was cuts and it was closures. The member for Tarneit was right. During his contribution he talked about their time in government and how it was a time of tremendous growth in Wyndham.

And what did they do? Absolutely nothing. Well, the member for Bulleen did something at the eleventh hour; he signed off 11 precinct structure plans, which are still being finished off in Wyndham as I speak. So part of the huge amount of problems we experience in Wyndham –

Matthew Guy interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Bulleen!

Sarah CONNOLLY: are certainly thanks to the member for Bulleen. I know it is a sore point for him. I know it is a sore point. They have also tried to make inroads in our communities, and each time they fail, things like this are why. I would say to the member for Bulleen –

Matthew Guy interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Bulleen will compose himself.

Matthew Guy interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am on my feet. When the house comes to order, the member for Laverton to continue.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Well, the member for Bulleen has had plenty of opportunity to get back on radio and correct the record, but he has not done that, so I stand by my comments here – that is exactly what they intend to do. But what I would say to the member for Bulleen and the thousands of people that catch that service on the Wyndham Vale line, they know that is not an excess service. They are critical capacity supports so that folks and families on the Wyndham Vale line and on the Melton line can better access train services to the city, because that is where people are working at the moment. There is a raft of work being done to enable electrification, like the Sunshine station superhub, which we are delivering as part of Melbourne Airport rail. But we are not waiting for these works to be done and finished before doing anything – we have just announced we are going to be upgrading the Melton line. The $650 million is going into expanding platforms and getting the line ready for those bigger, longer trains that we know we are desperate for. And we have just funded more of those – and I love this; I think this is such a great thing that came through the budget – really important nine-car carriage V/Line trains for the Wyndham Vale line. Every time someone in Wyndham sees these trains go past, we count the carriages. There are going to be more nine-car carriage trains than ever before during the peak times, morning and afternoon, and they have an extra 50 per cent capacity. For folks in the outer west, that is the difference between being able to get on a train or not. That is the difference between being able to get a seat or not.

We know that more works need to be done. The member for Bulleen said, apparently, folks in Wyndham can do without it. So if you are living in Melbourne’s outer west, if you are living in Werribee or if you are living in Tarneit, Melton or Caroline Springs, not only do those opposite want to fast track and dump tens of thousands of homes in our local communities out on the urban fringes – where we are already doing our heavy lifting; we do not need more homes out there – but they also want to keep their own suburbs free from new housing. They are even talking now about taking away our train services – that is just how crazy this is.

But I want to go back to the Sunshine superhub for a minute and the work that we are delivering as part of Melbourne Airport rail, including station upgrades at Albion and Tottenham stations. Albion and Tottenham stations are old stations, and they are not looking so great at the moment. They need a facelift, although the Minister for Transport Infrastructure says to me it is more than a facelift and it is more than a glow-up. For both Tottenham and Albion stations, they are entire rebuilds of those stations. Like I said, they are really old stations. People have really wanted an upgrade for a very long time, and that is exactly what is going to be delivered as part of Melbourne Airport rail.

Alarm bells were ringing just over a year ago because those opposite were in lockstep with the federal Liberal Party, who wanted to cut more than $1 billion from this project, which was just extraordinary. I remember when Peter Dutton – I know we do not mention his name too often here anymore – announced during the federal election that he was going to cut the Sunshine superhub from Melbourne Airport rail. This would have meant that no extra platforms would be built, no major transport interchange would be built, and it would have set back any electrification works for decades and decades. It would also have meant that there would be no Tottenham station rebuild either. But it does make one wonder – and I know folks in Melbourne’s west should wonder – whether the Leader of the Opposition and her new team plan to make cuts to our Sunshine superhub.

What will that mean for Albion station and Tottenham station? Will they finally get the rebuild that people need and, more importantly, that they deserve?

When you have plans to cut $40 billion in services and infrastructure, nothing and no-one is actually safe. When they were last in government, public spending on public transport infrastructure projects was slashed by more than 66 per cent. That is more than half. That is why, when we came to government in 2014, the cupboards were bare. There were no plans, there were no projects and there were no visions to take up and continue along with. It is why we have done the heavy lifting here in this state for the last 12 years, building the big transport infrastructure projects that are going to be transformational, not just for Melbourne but for Victoria, and not just for folks living here now but for generations to come, generations that are not even born yet. But those opposite, last time they were in government, slashed that spending by 66 per cent. When you cut and when you de-scope and water down these types of projects, you do not get better service delivery. You get issues that need to be fixed up again and again further down the track.

This approach is not just limited to transport infrastructure projects. They have said they will cut spending to regional schools. You just know that our schools in Wyndham, the many, many schools that we have been able to build and upgrade and schools still needing to be upgraded, will also cop cuts. As we on this side of the house know, the Leader of the Opposition went on Sky after dark – she never struck me as the type to appear on Sky after dark, but you never know that about a Liberal, and she did it right after taking the leadership – and said schools are not going to be built or even fixed under a government she leads. Folks in Melbourne’s west know what that impact would be when you have schools still needing to be upgraded and more schools needing to be built.

We built, and we have delivered, more than 100 new schools across Victoria. I think we were actually at about 120 or 121, last I checked. That is across Victoria, and that is just over the past eight years alone. That is extraordinary. At the same time – I cannot believe I am even reading this – does anyone remember what those opposite promised? They promised to build four schools. Can you believe that – four schools. We have built over 100 in eight years. Of the four schools they promised to build in Victoria none were earmarked or scheduled for Melbourne’s west. Even as the member for Bulleen signed off, at the eleventh hour, on 11 precinct structure plans in Wyndham, not one school was earmarked for Wyndham. They may not be nasty people, but what I will say to the community is that they just do not understand. They do not get it. They do not understand the needs of communities like ours. They do not know what we need, and they certainly will never deliver what we deserve. All they know how to do is cut. They cut deeply, and they cut the services that folks like mine rely upon.

You cannot cut $40 billion without making cuts to schools and making cuts to hospitals. And you cannot cut $40 billion without sacking frontline workers. You cannot tell me that you can achieve that in less than six years by not making cuts to frontline services. It simply cannot be done. Now, to make those cuts, folks need to realise you would have to cut one in seven public servants – everything from healthcare workers, teachers and education staff to child protection officers. When they were last in government, 4128 public sector jobs were cut in a period of just two years. These cuts would be more savage and see thousands and thousands of Victorians lose their jobs. People cannot afford to lose their jobs in a cost-of-living crisis. They absolutely cannot afford that.

This is not a plan for a better Victoria. Those opposite have had plenty of time to come up with a plan for a better Victoria, to give people opportunity, to have a vision that promotes a positive Victoria. They have spent 12 years here in this place talking down this great state of ours. So I do grieve for my local community, because if those opposite ever have the privilege of coming into government, especially this coming November, it is folks in the western suburbs, particularly in the outer west, that would suffer most from cuts – cuts to services, cuts to schools, cuts to hospitals and cuts to jobs. I wholeheartedly grieve for my community.

Question agreed to.