Thursday, 3 August 2023

Rail infrastructure

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (09:56): Clearly, modern Labor have forgotten that it was the working classes who got them where they are today, because the hardworking people of the western suburbs just keep getting taken for granted. This Labor government promised people in the west, who trusted them and voted for them, that they would get new electrified lines to Melton and an extension of the metro train network, through Ardeer, Caroline Springs, Cobblebank, Deer Park, Rockbank and Tarneit. This would have required duplicating tracks to unblock the bottleneck at Sunshine, but of course an FOI from the Age revealed that these plans have indeed been cut.

We in the west are the fastest growing region in Melbourne, with 70 per cent growth over the last decade and far more projected to come. Unfortunately, this Labor government lectures the residents in the western suburbs about using their cars on roads that it refuses to fix because it hurts the environment and then makes an election promise to improve public transport that clearly it never intends to deliver. The western suburbs voters deserve better, and the Minister for Public Transport should hang his head in shame.