Thursday, 19 June 2025

Western Victoria Region

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (12:46): (1656) My question is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and it raises serious concerns about V/Line services, particularly between Ballarat and Ararat. As reported on the front page of the Ballarat Courier today, young teenager Jacob raised concerns over what he witnessed while on the V/Line service. The most shocking incident amongst a multitude of incidents was witnessing two people overdose next to him and his friend on the train. I quote from Jacob directly:

We got to just out of Beaufort and both of them became unconscious … that’s when the conductor tapped one of them to see if they would wake up, and they didn’t.

It was found out later that one of those people passed away. Minister, we have a serious problem on our public transport network when we have drug taking and antisocial behaviour. My question is: what are you going to do to fix this serious problem?