Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (13:06): (2312) My constituency question is for the Minister for Environment. My constituent is a parent who read about the Breathe Melbourne project, which was published in the Australian Journal of General Practice last week. Researchers from Deakin University found children in Maribyrnong, Hobsons Bay and Brimbank experience 26 to 53 per cent higher asthma-related emergency visits than the state average. These concerns have been echoed by another Australian multiresearch facility report released just today that again directly links air pollution to a range of respiratory and cardiac conditions. The issue is clearly much bigger than just truck transport and the potentially ameliorative impact of the West Gate Tunnel. Further, air quality monitoring since the tunnel opened shows repeated exceedence of major pollutants. So my constituents ask: what concrete steps will the minister take to improve air quality in the inner west to reduce the burden of disease?