Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (23:03): (2044) My adjournment is also to the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and it concerns the desperate need to fund the reopening of a train station for the good but neglected people of Beveridge in my electorate. For those that do not know, Beveridge has had a strong history of rail infrastructure dating back to 1872, before it was cruelly closed by the Cain Labor government, with the station demolished by the Kirner Labor government in 1991, demonstrating perhaps that Labor’s neglect of the north is nothing new but has been a way of life for a long time. I join my friend and fellow representative Cr Bob Cornish of Mitchell shire, who described funding this project as ‘a no-brainer’. I note that councillors in Mitchell shire have recently endorsed this reopening of the train station as their number one priority for the state government in the lead-up to next year’s election.

Last year the state government announced that Mitchell shire would be expected to more than triple its housing stock – by a massive 312 per cent. A few months ago the state government approved between Beveridge and Wallan 15,000 homes. That is 50,000 people. And typical of this government, they provided no plans for how these residents are going to commute or get around the local area by funding new infrastructure – not one cent for new infrastructure. In fact all the projects they briefed out to the media were federally funded and off into the 2030s, as is the Camerons Lane interchange.

We know with public transport that you need good and reliable public transport when people move in, to avoid the increased number of cars. It is about 2.4 cars per household at this stage in the growth areas. Because the government has consistently neglected Beveridge, they wait 45 minutes in the morning to get off Lithgow Street. I call it – and many residents call it – Kalkallo mark II, where the government has not learned its lessons in delivering growth suburbs. It has completely botched the delivery of growth suburbs. The population of Beveridge has increased by nearly 20 times since the Cain and Kirner governments closed the railway station. It is absolutely vital that the Allan Labor government undo this historic Labor wrong by reopening the Beveridge railway station. So I repeat my action, which is for the Allan Labor government to undo the injustice of the Cain and Kirner Labor governments and build a train station for the good people of Beveridge, who are struggling under the burden of the government’s housing growth and of it not helping the community.