Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Ballarat train station

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (18:18): (356) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, who up until recently was the Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery – or probably more accurately, non-delivery. The action that I seek is that the government commits to funding the train platform opposite Mars Stadium in Ballarat. Through the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee budget hearings we discovered that the events platform could not be built because of ‘a factor of time’, given the Commonwealth Games were due in 2026. Lo and behold, that very same minister cancelled the games and trashed the reputation of Victoria in the process.

Given that there is now no factor of time for this project, what possible excuse could we have for the non-delivery? Domino’s Pizza deliver better and more efficiently than this government does. They are on time and on budget, and they even give you a receipt. You can even track the progress of your order with a little map. Wouldn’t it be great if this government had some way of tracking your order as well? Wouldn’t it just be great? But no, we cannot have that, because it might shine a light a little bit too much on the complete mismanagement and incompetence that we have seen in the Commonwealth Games debacle.

Honestly, the only excuse not to build the platform is that Victoria has run out of money. And what happens when Victoria runs out of money? Things get cancelled. It is absolutely shameful that my community of Ballarat continues to be ignored. A train platform would not only help improve public transport and prevent congestion but would help support major events, including AFL games and live music.

On Tuesday 4 July I was joined by Commerce Ballarat, the Committee for Ballarat and the Ballarat ag society, along with my parliamentary colleagues Bev McArthur and David Southwick in the other place, in calling on the government to build a platform in Ballarat. It is really a no-brainer. Just build the platform. Deliver something instead of abrogating your responsibility as a government, particularly on behalf of the people who live in my home town of Ballarat.