Wednesday, 19 November 2025

Members statements

West Gate Tunnel

Moira DEEMING
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West Gate Tunnel

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (09:49): I would also like to rise to talk about the amazing party that Labor just held in the west – that self-congratulatory parade. First, we had the simulated drive-through and then we had the walk-through of the not-quite-yet-opened West Gate Tunnel. It is the clearest real-world example of their socialist political philosophy in action. First of all, you have got your manufactured dependence. For years the west were starved of basic road transport investment, until they were desperate enough to listen to any promise by this government: ‘We can get rid of the trucks for you. It won’t cost you anything. It’ll be a great project.’ But of course then the silencing began and the suppressing of the inconvenient truth. The government’s own peer reviewer William McDougall warned that the business case relied on inflated assumptions, an untested model and what he called ‘methodological fudge’. Of course he was removed after raising these concerns, and of course now he has been proven right. Then there was the trampling on the private rights: homes near the works cracked, warped and sank. They were fobbed off with an offer of window cleaning, pizza vouchers and NDAs. Two huge ventilation stacks were built, without filters. Now the truth has come out: because of the subpar freight connections, traffic will actually increase, not decrease, which is why they introduced the curfew.

A member interjected.

Moira DEEMING: This project has made life harder, more expensive and less healthy for the people of the west. That is what socialism does and that is what Labor does. What a disgrace you are.

Bev McArthur: On a point of order, President, shouldn’t Mrs Deeming be allowed to be heard in silence for her members statement?

The PRESIDENT: Yes, I think everyone should be allowed to be heard in silence. Sometimes people are disappointed if they do not provoke an outcome from the other side. But I agree, and maybe every members statement from now on will be heard in silence.

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