Tuesday, 14 November 2023

Western Victoria Region

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (13:04): (548) My constituency question is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and it relates to the Ballarat railway station. I want to quote an article from 9 November, ‘Is the Ballarat station upgrade off-track?’:

Ballarat train station might not get its essential accessibility upgrades until after 2026, with public transport minister Gabrielle Williams unable to commit to any timelines on the project.

My question for the minister is: why is this case? Why can’t you give us a time line on this? Speaking at the station, a passing commuter in his 80s said to the gathered politicians that the project might not even be completed in his lifetime. Why is that the case? It just seems unbelievable. Now, this is on top of the member for Wendouree actually apologising to disability advocates locally because the project has not been completed on time. So I want to know, Minister: can you please explain why this project is taking so long and when it will actually be done?