Wednesday, 31 May 2023

 Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (18:11): (269) My adjournment is for the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Following the 2023–24 state budget tabled last week, the action I seek is for the minister to reprioritise the much-needed Melbourne Airport rail link over the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project. Our state is getting on with the Big Build, but Victoria’s major projects are consistently delayed or cancelled. The needed Melbourne Airport rail link is a critical infrastructure project that our state and Melbourne’s west so vitally need for connectivity. We are competing with Sydney for tourism, yet we are funnelling tourists and visitors into our great state by directing them to the confusing SkyBus service or the metro service. We have no dedicated friendly transportation servicing tourists directly to our city. This piece of infrastructure is one of the most critical things that our state needs, more so than the SRL.

Under Labor we are experiencing higher rents, increasing land tax, hikes in school fees and 32 major infrastructure projects shelved, including the Melbourne Airport rail link, Geelong fast rail and North East Link. Life is getting harder for Victorian families. So I ask the minister to seek action on why the government has been provided several billion dollars from the federal government in funding but no action has been taken with the Melbourne Airport rail link. Instead it is getting shelved. The link itself is connectivity for the west and for the state. So please, Minister, can you reprioritise this much-needed connectivity, being the Melbourne Airport rail link, over the Suburban Rail Loop project?