Wednesday, 27 August 2025

Ministers statements: Suburban Rail Loop

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:20): The Suburban Rail Loop is Australia’s largest infrastructure and housing project, and it will only be delivered under a Labor government. Last week it was a delight to join the members for Box Hill and Ashwood, along with the fantastic newly elected federal member for Menzies Gabriel Ng, at the SRL East Burwood site. Teams onsite are there around the clock excavating 19-metre-deep voids at the tunnel-boring machine launch site in preparation for the start of tunnelling next year.

But the Burwood site is not the only massive hole that has been making headlines. The coalition has been digging every day a little deeper, tying themselves in knots as they use this critical project as a proxy in the latest round of internal warfare within the Liberal Party. While Victorians back the SRL, the coalition just really hate each other, and now they know they must get themselves out of this hole they have dug for themselves with the daily lottery that determines their position on this project. That is why leadership aspirant Matthew Guy tried desperately last week to reverse course on their opposition to a project that Victorians have voted for in four consecutive elections. He said:

If a project is commencing then a project goes ahead, it’s as simple as that.

It then took his leader three days to summon the courage to contradict his potential challenger, adding to their clear-as-mud position by saying the Liberals will pause the project. This officially marks the eighth different policy position the Liberals have had on the Suburban Rail Loop since 2022. Pause, cancel or proceed – it really depends on who you ask, and if it is a day ending in ‘Y’, chances are you will get all three out of those opposite.

One thing they will not do, though, is say they will front up to the 3000 Suburban Rail Loop workers to tell them exactly what their confused positions mean for their jobs and their families. They will not front up to young Victorians who know this project will help them to buy their own home closer to where they grew up, and they certainly will not front up to the thousands of Victorians who backed this project in at four separate elections. The Allan Labor government has only ever had one position on the Suburban Rail Loop: build 70,000 homes, take pressure off outer suburbs and slash travel times. We are getting on with it.