Tuesday, 14 May 2024

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (20:25): (881) My adjournment is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and the action I seek is to provide an update as to why there was no funding for the construction of the Wallan diamond in my electorate in the budget. In the north the Wallan diamond, as it is locally known – south-facing ramps onto the Hume from Watson Street – in the fast-growing community of Wallan has been promised by federal and state Labor at multiple different elections. In 2019 the federal coalition government tipped in $50 million to this project. Despite the Labor federal member for McEwen’s lies to the electorate, Major Road Projects Victoria have actually acknowledged that this is real, budgeted money, a 2019 commitment from the federal Liberals, which makes it the only serious dollars towards construction of the project – by the Liberal Party. In the 2022 election Jacinta Allan took the journey to Wallan to announce $130 million for the Wallan diamond. It was later revealed after the election, deep in an MRPV document, that the $130 million promised by Labor was actually inclusive of the federal coalition government’s $50 million – so it was penny-pinched back to $80 million. Now, you would think after all that you would see funding in the budget – no. The MRPV document also states that planning and a business case will be completed by early 2024. Have we seen any business case? Have we seen any planning study done? No, the community has not seen that.

Again and again we have seen them spend an enormous amount of money, signing billion-dollar contracts for the Suburban Rail Loop, which will not in the slightest assist the good people of Wallan, who need to actually have their train line electrified in the first place. It is growing by tens of thousands of people and is still on V/Line – it does not have a Metro service. SRL will not help them. The roads are full of potholes. The member for Kalkallo, who represents Wallan, is rarely sighted in the town. In fact at the Wallan market on the weekend I had one person who presumed I was their local member because they do not actually see their Labor member. I said to them, ‘In 2026, that just means you have to vote out your Labor member.’ They also rarely see the member for Yan Yean, who represents East Wallan. She said on her Facebook that the budget meant the Wallan diamond ramps were on the way. I searched through the entire budget – I control-F’d to try to find it – and I could not find anything. So I do not know where this member has gotten her information from, but I seek the action from the minister to provide an update to my constituents as to why there is no funding for the Wallan diamond in the budget.