Thursday, 5 March 2020

Western Victoria passenger rail services

Ms KEALY (Lowan) (17:12): (2024) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public Transport, regarding the Overland and passenger rail services to western Victoria.

In just 26 days Labor are going to cut funding to the Overland rail service. It is the only passenger rail service which services western Victoria, and the action I seek is for the minister to continue to fund the Overland, as Labor have done solely for the past 15 months—and as the Victorian government has contributed to for decades—and that they also match the fully funded and costed Nationals commitment to deliver a regular three-times-daily passenger rail service to Horsham and to Hamilton.

It is of course the dying days of the Overland, and there are many, many people in my community who are deeply distressed around the demise of passenger rail services in our part of the state and particularly their connection to the Overland. If you look at the communities west of Horsham, this is a very, very important public transport service for those people, and it has been lovely to see, really, the work and the advocacy of people within particularly the Nhill and Kaniva communities to try and retain funding for the Overland. I would particularly like to mention Margaret Millington. Marg Millington is a wonderful human being, and she and her husband, John, have contributed so much to the Victorian community—

The SPEAKER: I might just get the member to pause for a moment. This is an opportunity for members to leave the chamber and head to the evacuation assembly point in the car park. The house is suspended.

Sitting suspended 5.14 pm until 5.26 pm.

Ms KEALY: A fire alarm had us leaving the building. I do not think I have ever been stopped because there was a fire alarm before, but I will continue speaking of the great work of Marg Millington and John Millington, who have done a fabulous amount of work locally in advocating and lobbying to retain the Overland. Certainly as users of passenger rail services in our part of the state they are strong advocates and understand not only that being without passenger rail to our region impacts on our ability to attract and retain staff but also that this is an important service to make sure people can get to their medical appointments and connect with other areas of the community, whether that is travelling through to Horsham or further on to Ballarat and to Melbourne.

In Nhill, which is where Marg and John are from, there has been a fantastic turnout of local residents. I know that Helen from Nhill, Wendy Bywaters and other community members have been regularly turning up when the Overland comes through town to show their support to all of the employees that are involved in that service.

Also I would like to make mention of Stuart Hicks from Kaniva. Stuart has put together a lot of work to create the Overland Museum. He wants to make sure that that history around the Overland is retained and has put an enormous amount of work into that. These are just a few examples of people who are really looking to make sure that we see the Overland continue—but it is not just that; it is the importance of regular passenger rail services to western Victoria.

I know it has been a long time since we have had a regular passenger rail service to our part of the state. I was not old enough to vote and was a traveller going to boarding school when the last trains went through in the mid-1990s, and it is something that I certainly feel quite passionate about. That is why we made an election commitment about it—that we would bring back passenger rail. The time is now to look at that, and I certainly urge the minister to look favourably upon continuing the funding that Labor has provided to the Overland in recent times but also to make sure that we get that commitment to improve passenger rail services to western Victoria.