Tuesday, 8 March 2022

West Gate Tunnel

Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) (12:52): It is a truism that Labor neglects Melbourne’s west, something that we have come to accept for a very long time. As Sunbury and Bulla await their first deposits of PFAS toxic soil, this carcinogenic crap already is being dumped in Ravenhall in Melbourne’s west. But if you really want to see what the government is doing to the west at the moment, have a look at the traffic. Have a look at the West Gate Bridge and indeed the West Gate Freeway. Last week we saw an incident where the CFMEU, a significant contributor to the ALP, closed the bridge, affecting tens if not hundreds of thousands of people. They put the cat among the pigeons in fact and just closed the bridge altogether. Of course that is something that we are becoming increasingly used to, because what this government has done is make the West Gate Freeway a no-go zone. You just do not go there. The Princes Freeway—it is a no-go zone. You just do not go there. It is killing business, it is driving residents up the wall, it is hurting industry and of course it is hurting employment. It is just extraordinary that this government is doing this to an area that it so often likes to call its own. This government could not have stuffed up more if it had tried. It is a tribute to the corruption and incompetence of the Victorian ALP.