Thursday, 31 October 2024

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:54): (1212) My constituency question is for the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. The Labor government and the minister’s SRL project had a confusing start to the week when it was publicly revealed that the evictions of businesses and households have been delayed by nine months. Notwithstanding the fact that you cannot simply tell a business owner to extend their business nine months, or not, in a given location and the incredibly difficult financial and forward planning issues that creates for them, it also would imply that the project itself is running nine months late already, before it has barely started. My question to the minister is: why has there been a delay of nine months in completing the evictions via the compulsory acquisitions, and will the Suburban Rail Loop East be delivered in 2035 as promised?