Thursday, 3 August 2023

Rail infrastructure

Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (17:31): (366) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, and I ask the minister to fulfil the Labor government’s own commitment to build and electrify dual train lines to Melton and Wyndham Vale. The Age reported yesterday that the promised rail lines included in the 2018 pre-election Western Rail Plan are now off the table according to Rail Projects Victoria reports received through the Freedom of Information Act 1982. I echo my colleague Dr Mansfield’s comments in saying that the Victorian Labor government’s decision to axe these proposed rail lines is further evidence of a government happy to leave the regions struggling. We know that these regions are amongst the fastest growing in Victoria, and we also know that the communities living there are among the hardest hit with the current cost-of-living crisis. Those communities desperately need improved public transport services. Many households are struggling to keep one car on the road, so the cost of a second car is becoming unfeasible.

Looking at the wider transport picture, it is actually Victoria that desperately needs those lines to be improved to contribute, as I have outlined today, to achieving our climate target of net zero emissions. The transport sector is the second-largest contributor to Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions, making up 25 per cent of our state’s total emissions, according to the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. In fact 89.5 per cent of transport emissions are from road transport compared to 1.5 per cent from railways, and our transport emissions are increasing, not decreasing. As the evidence tells us, travel per kilometre on rail has significantly less emissions than travel per kilometre on road, and travel per kilometre on electrified rail is even lower again.

With regard to the net zero emissions target, we can debate whether that should be kept at 2045 or, as the Greens and the global scientific community see it, brought forward to at least 2035. But even with Victoria’s current target to get to zero emissions by 2045, how on earth is that going to happen when our second-largest sector of emissions is not only increasing but on trend to increase more sharply with our increased population growth?

Responsible governments should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Responsible governments should be able to make investments that have a good cost–benefit ratio, provide these services to underserved communities and contribute to the strategic target of net zero carbon emissions. My adjournment therefore is for the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure to fulfil the Labor government’s own commitment to build and electrify the dual train lines to Melton and Wyndham Vale to serve those communities.