Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2019–20 Budget Estimates

Mr RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (10:33): Well, we are up and about about the 2019–20 budget, and I want to take people to the Department of Transport section, pages 119 through to 122. It is a fine bit of reading, because level crossing removals are on the go down the Frankston train line. There is a bit going on down there, and in May we will get underway with the removal of the Mentone and Cheltenham level crossings—three being dug out. Those opposite in their little ‘get back in control’ double-page spreadsheet with more pictures than words put it back to 2023. This beautiful budget document says we will be removing those level crossings by the end of this year. We are not delaying; we are not short-changing the Mentone and Cheltenham communities.

But we are not done there. It is a steak-knife-and-the-lot set-up right down on the Frankston line, because Mentone and Cheltenham are not the only ones; there are Bonbeach, Chelsea and Edithvale getting underway as well. By next year in September we will be underway with major construction, and that has been made possible by the vision of this government to invest in transport infrastructure with the removal of 75 level crossings by 2025. So it is an exciting time down there. When I think of the people in my community who are working on these projects, who are living and working and breathing these projects for the next few years, it is very exciting as well.

And then you go to the Suburban Rail Loop—and goodness me, do we get some feedback on this one. This one will start somewhere around the member for Sandringham’s electorate and my electorate, and you could not get two more excited people than the member for Sandringham and me for this project. Where will it be in Cheltenham, where will it be in the area? It is up and about—in 2022 it will be in the ground, and I am sure I will be out there with the member for Sandringham. We will be standing there, cheering this on. It will be 10 years by the time it gets through to Box Hill in that stage—stage 1 is very exciting. This is the vision that we need in this state. We need to start projects today that will be opened by governments in the future, and our community is up and about on this. On the Frankston train line this will transform the way we get around, and when you think about the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel and how that will mean you will just turn up—you do not need a timetable anymore; turn up and go—the 200 trains that run up and down the Frankston train line will be transformed. We will have more services more often, getting people into the city.

That is all underpinned by $100 billion in infrastructure investment—not delaying level crossings to 2023 or weird intersection removal policies that never got a hearing again. I mean, goodness me, that is a thing that is a phantom of the past now. You do not hear anything about that in any documentation. It was not costed and was going to absolutely butcher my community and make traffic worse. No, it is about the vision of these projects, and in each and every community that they are delivering to it is transforming those outcomes.

I want to also take people to infrastructure investment in education, and goodness me this gets people excited. This is absolutely amazing. Fifteen hundred projects around the state are transforming schools and investments across the state. Now, take those tuning in from home; if they want to turn to page 98, those tuning in, this is absolutely incredible investment in new school infrastructure. When we came to government—goodness me, we could not find a new school to open. There was nothing going on. It was bare—the cupboard was bare. The minister at the table, he was looking: ‘Let’s make a quick start—did the former minister put any investment in?’ No, we had to come to government and make that significant investment—over $647 million being invested in new schools to deal with a substantial amount of growth because people are choosing to move to, one, Victoria and, two, the new growth suburbs that are the new communities of tomorrow that are indeed being built now. That is transforming that, and 100 schools for the coming years are being built now to set up our communities for the future. But do not forget those are existing schools, and we have had record investment—$362 million has been invested over the forward estimates—transforming more than 59 existing schools and funding planning for 44 schools as well.

This is a visionary policy. I heard one contribution I think from the member for Forest Hill the other week, who said, ‘It’s not about just spending the money for the sake of it’. Why don’t you get out to some of the schools and the communities who have had buildings falling down? Because education should be seen through the prism of the home. It takes years to build up a home—the values, the infrastructure, the foundations and putting that all together—but it only takes a matter of moments to destroy a home. And when those opposite tore the education investment to absolute pieces, when they cut funding to our schools and when they went after the most vulnerable, that is what we did to repair it. It has taken time and I have never seen so much purpose, energy and hope in our schools as now, led by the Premier and the Minister for Education. They are up and about, and we are keeping on going in this investment because it is transforming the lives and outcomes of students across the state of Victoria. It is indeed breaking the link between disadvantage and their educational outcomes. I cannot wait for the next budget. It is only three months away, but we will keep talking about this one in the interim.