Wednesday, 29 October 2025

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (09:58): Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the West of Melbourne Economic Development Alliance conference. I would like to congratulate WOMEDA and Victoria University for convening this group of some 150 stakeholders. It was also lovely to see a number of my colleagues in the chamber attending and participating in the process. I would also like to express my appreciation to the Age, who were the co-sponsors. Apart from their great contribution on the day, I think across the western suburbs folks have been delighted to see the focus they brought to bear on a range of big issues in the west leading up to the conference. By way of example, the Age covered the Synergetics report demonstrating that the West Gate Tunnel vent stacks would not disperse emissions but would rather drop them over surrounding houses and businesses. We posted a link on Reddit for both the article and their subsequent rebuttal of the Minister for Roads and Road Safety’s error-riddled condemnation of the original story. The former was read 65,000 times and the latter 70,000 times. It was brilliant to have so many fine minds sharing thoughts on how we realise the enormous potential of the west – if only we could get the prerequisite alignment on investment, environment and policy. The major bummer of the conference – and every conference has one – was the statement from Jeroen Weimar that the electrification works of the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines would not commence until after the Sunbury station redevelopment is completed. In short – and in a best case – those communities will get their line electrified a decade after it was first promised.