Thursday, 5 February 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:47): (2285) Tonight I want to raise a matter for the minister for transport. The big switch has not gone well. The switch with the new tunnel and all of the matters around that have not gone well. On Tuesday night I had a barrage of texts come to me about the sagging wire. The state government is blaming a sagging wire for chaos across the whole system. For example, one person texted me the details of their –

John Berger: Who?

David DAVIS: Her name is Sophie. I am not going to give her full name, but there you are. She tried to get home that night, and she had to go back to Melbourne, to Flinders Street, then to Caulfield. There were 2000 people on the station at Caulfield, and the station –

John Berger interjected.

David DAVIS: Well, this is what happened. But you do not really go to your electorate – I know that. You live down in Teesdale, and you would not be worried about what happens in the electorate here. I am worried about the transport going through my electorate. I am worried about the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, which have now been cut off from the MCG, cut off from South Yarra. People are waking up to what has gone on here. $15.5 billion, up from $9 billion in the first estimate – a huge cost blowout, and actually there are real problems with what is being delivered. What occurred the other night was an absolute mess, an absolute debacle. We saw the people crowded on the stairs, people crowded on the platform at Caulfield. We saw the train stopped – and just let the house record the member over there laughing at this. This is actually quite serious, and he is laughing at the serious matter that is occurring here with –

Michael Galea: On a point of order, President, Mr Davis is blatantly misrepresenting Mr Berger. He is plainly laughing at Mr Davis himself, not at the issue that Mr Davis is talking about.

The PRESIDENT: I would advise members not to verbalise other members.

David DAVIS: What I am seeking is a full and independent investigation of what occurred on Tuesday night. The sagging wire, the people trying to get onto the elevators, the shocking situation where two trains were stalled outside Caulfield, and they were left there for 2 or 3 hours. People were in really very hot, very uncomfortable circumstances. This is a Third World system that we are seeing here, a system that –

Members interjecting.

David DAVIS: Well, this is what you say. The fact is you have spent $15.5 billion and you cannot get the trains to run properly, you cannot get them to run on time and you have had sagging wires stopping the whole system and thousands of people on platforms trying to get home. There needs to be a full independent public investigation about the debacle that is occurring with this. It is a shocker. The minister who is responsible is the Premier; she is the one who delivered this very – (Time expired)