Ministers statements: Metro Tunnel
Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (11:07): I was delighted today to be down at the future site of the Anzac station with the Minister for Transport Infrastructure to personally thank so many workers and to send the message to every one of the 7000 people who are connected with that project that every Victorian is proud of the work they are doing. The third and fourth tunnel-boring machines connected with this project will be launched from that site very soon, pushing out to Kensington then coming back and heading into the centre of the city. The amount of work that has gone on at this site—it is a credit to all of those who have been involved in the project. Of course, we marked five years since the government first began delivering on our election commitment to build the biggest public transport project in our state’s history, and arguably one of the biggest in our nation’s history, and what progress has been made in the last five years: twin tunnels, 9 kilometres, five new underground stations, a turn-up-and-go public transport system, the best experience, unclogging and creating additional capacity in the current loop and of course providing a premium service for those on our busiest rail line.
It was not always the case that this project was going ahead so strongly. There was a time, despite Infrastructure Australia and indeed every commentator really being on board with this project and ranking it highly and saying that it was absolutely at the centre of a better public transport system, when it sat on the shelf gathering dust while people were fundamentally misled with commitments to things like Avalon rail, Doncaster rail—remember that one?—and dare I say it, Rowville rail. Not a metre of track was laid on any of those, not a hole dug, other than the one those opposite found themselves in then and now.