Wednesday, 17 June 2026

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:12): (2602) My adjournment is for the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. Ask anyone who lives, dines or runs a business in Glen Waverley, and they will tell you the same thing: parking near Kingsway is now a nightmare. At the last election the Glen Waverley Traders Association was given a clear commitment that a multilevel car park would be built on the Euneva West site bounded by O’Sullivan Road, Euneva Avenue and Railway Parade and that it would be delivered before major Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) construction began and before the Glendale Street car parks were closed. It was put to traders on numerous occasions that this was the key measure to offset the parking that was lost to the precinct. To this day, that has not been done. Traders are now being advised that construction will not even commence until 2029, so I need to be plain about what the delay means on the ground.

Glen Waverley is already losing parking. The Montclair Avenue closures are being felt now, and the replacement spaces in Myrtle Street sit well away from Kingsway and do little for the heart of the precinct. In late 2026 the central car park closes, taking a further 263 spaces with it. All the other car parks are already at capacity. This is an inconvenience that is now hitting the trade directly along Kingsway. The evening traffic is at near standstill. The businesses tell me that diners are ringing ahead to cancel bookings because they have spent 20 or 30 minutes just searching for a space and have simply given up. The revenue is walking out the door in a precinct that was promised additional capacity precisely so it could survive the decade of SRL build disruption. The car park was meant to be in place before the losses arrived. Instead the losses are arriving, the promises have been broken and the traders are right to fear the project may never be built at all.

The state Labor government, including the local member of Parliament, and the Suburban Rail Loop Authority have repeatedly made promises to these businesses that they will be considered and protected. These are all broken promises. The action I seek from the minister is a straight answer to the traders of Glen Waverley: will this car park be built, yes or no, and on what date? The businesses along Kingsway, whose livelihoods depend on it, deserve better than a promise quietly pushed out to 2029.