Wednesday, 19 November 2025

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:14): My question is for the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop: on a package of almost $1 million a year, why did the government not require the Suburban Rail Loop Authority CEO to live in Melbourne?

Nick McGowan: What’s wrong with Melbourne, Minister?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:14): I am going to pick up that interjection, Mr McGowan. You have just asked what is wrong with Melbourne. If we listened to you, we would get quite a different answer to what is happening on the ground with business investment, with job creation, with a pipeline of infrastructure, with one of the fullest events calendars in Australia and indeed anywhere around the world. We would, if we listened to you, miss the fact that investment and economic growth are hallmarks of what is happening here, that we have better affordability when it comes to finding a home than anywhere else and that we have more housing approvals, commencements and completions than other major cities.

Nick McGowan interjected.

Harriet SHING: Mr McGowan, we can go here all day, but I would prefer to go through the Chair, and I would prefer to talk to Australia’s largest housing and transport infrastructure project in the Suburban Rail Loop. Mr Mulholland, tunnel-boring machines are arriving later this year, and tunnel boring will be getting underway next year. That is because our government have only ever had one position on the Suburban Rail Loop, and we are building it.

Evan Mulholland: On a point of order, President, on relevance, the minister has not gone near the question. It has been over a minute now. The question was: on a package of almost $1 million a year, why did the government not require the Suburban Rail Loop Authority CEO to live in Melbourne?

Tom McIntosh: On the point of order, President, it is just constant interjections coming from the other side, so I think it is difficult for the –

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: I will uphold both points of order and call the minister back to the question and also ask if she can answer without constant interjection.

Harriet SHING: Just to be really clear, you did, in your framing of the question, Mr Mulholland, refer to terms for the CEO of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority. Now, the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal has actually got really established remuneration levels that sit for the purposes of framing executive in public service bodies terms and conditions. Advice is also provided in relation to those packages, and that is really transparently published on the executive remuneration section of the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal website.

The CEO’s salary, as outlined in that 2024–25 report, includes the salary as well as superannuation, all accrued annual leave entitlements and long service leave. It also includes an annual remuneration adjustment. And it relates to the way in which we are able to develop and deliver Australia’s largest housing and transport infrastructure project using the necessary level of technical expertise for a project that is on time and on budget. Mr Mulholland, when you talk about the requirement to live here in Victoria, I just want to be really clear: Mr Carroll’s primary residence is here in Victoria. No matter what you want to say, no matter what you want to talk to, Mr Carroll’s residence is here in Victoria. He is proud to be delivering this project. We are proud to be delivering this project. It is on time and it is on budget. And heaven help anybody who has to listen to one of your 22 different positions on the Suburban Rail Loop. Just today, it is pause, cancel, scrap –

Evan Mulholland: On a point of order, President, question time is not an opportunity to attack the opposition. I ask her to return to the question.

The PRESIDENT: The point of order is correct, and there have been a number of precedents around that from different presidents. I ask people if they could refrain from interjecting too much. Sometimes people on the other end of the interjections cannot help but respond, so I will ask the minister to ignore interjections and I ask for the opposition to not interject.

Harriet SHING: The only healthy numbers you have got on that side are the 22 different positions you have had on the Suburban Rail Loop and the $11.1 billion in cuts – that is it – in addition to slashing the Suburban Rail Loop and sacking 4000 workers. (Time expired)

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:19): The Suburban Rail Loop Authority chief executive has billed taxpayers for more than 30 domestic flights since 2021, including travel from Brisbane, where he lives. Why won’t the minister require the CEO to immediately relocate to Melbourne?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:19): Thanks, Mr Mulholland. You did not listen to the answer to the substantive question, possibly because you were considering what it is that your colleagues might or might not be saying about you. What I was wanting to actually address, though, is the premise of your question. Mr Carroll’s primary residence is Victoria. Mr Carroll has, in a handful of cases, been recalled to duty and required to cut short annual leave or return to Melbourne at very short notice on weekends for critical meetings or events. The Suburban Rail Loop Authority has covered the out-of-pocket expenses of those domestic flights, and that is in line with SRLA and government policy, Mr Mulholland. If you are suggesting for a moment that we should not have remuneration set in accordance with the terms of the independent remuneration tribunal, I am sure everybody would welcome an opportunity to hear what it is that you have to say, and if for a second you are saying that we should not have the best in the business delivering Australia’s largest transport and infrastructure project, then I am sure everybody else would be just as interested to hear that.