Tuesday, 12 August 2025

Adjournment

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (17:39): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Western suburbs transport infrastructure

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (17:39): (1803) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure and/or the Minister for Planning. In Melbourne’s west families keep seeing glossy pre-election photos of Labor ministers in hard hats announcing projects that they desperately need, yet the ribbon cutting, the actual delivery, never seems to arrive. Across six flagship western suburbs projects, Labor has made at least 13 election cycle promises and repromises since 2014, but we keep getting pushed to the back of the line. In 2018 the government promised to electrify the Melton line under the Western Rail Plan. Since then it has been repromised in campaign after campaign. There is still no construction funding for full electrification, and we now hear talk of partial electrification, while full delivery drifts over into the 2040s.

Melbourne Airport rail has slid into a string of enabling works announcements, while the core link remains years away. Households in St Albans and Sydenham were told Sunshine would unlock capacity, and commuters through Sunbury were told that the airport link would ease the corridor, but instead, again, we have just been pushed along and delayed. Melton hospital was promised in 2018 then reannounced in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. Contracts and financials were pushed back until late 2024, and major construction to 2025, and now opening is supposed to be in 2029, 11 years on from the first promise. In Werribee and Melton, families have been told over and over help is coming, but they are still waiting. Entire new suburbs – Thornhill Park, Mount Atkinson, Fraser Rise, Rockbank North, Deanside, Weir Views and Aintree – still report no buses, and where routes do exist they often only run every 30 minutes. In Wyndham, Point Cook, Werribee, Tarneit West and Truganina, growth has outrun services. The Commonwealth has committed funding for the Western Freeway and M80 links between Laverton and Melton, but delivery rests with the state and the project remains listed as ‘in planning’ because Victoria’s business case and milestones are still pending. It is the same thing with the Calder. A state corridor through Niddrie and Sunbury remains among the most congested and outdated despite years and years of campaign references. It is the same thing with the outer metropolitan ring-road, and I could go on. The action that I seek is simply that this government act and get things done.

The PRESIDENT: Could I just check, Mrs Deeming, which minister that was for? The Minister for Transport Infrastructure, yes?

Moira DEEMING: Yes.