Thursday, 13 August 2026

 Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (10:06): Labor backs country towns, and we do that by investing in the services people rely on, like V/Line. V/Line is the lifeblood of country Victoria. The Nationals ripped out the train lines. We built them back, and we are adding more services every weekday across Gippsland for Yarram, Leongatha, Marlo, Orbost and Bairnsdale. Yarram passengers get a new weekday morning coach. That is part of 11 extra services a week for Yarram and Leongatha. The weekday Marlow to Bairnsdale coach now extends through to Sale and Traralgon, linking up with the train to Melbourne, so all of East Gippsland has an additional weekday service to Melbourne when it is needed in the morning. Labor has rebuilt V/Line and cut prices so that country Victorians pay the same as city travellers, saving passengers millions. Now we are adding more and more services, because we fundamentally believe in public transport in the country. It was the Nationals sucking up to Jeff Kennett who shut down the Bairnsdale line and privatised V/Line, and now hand in hand with One Nation that is exactly what they will do again. Right across country Victoria we are adding more bus services, whether that is in Leongatha, whether that is in Yarram, whether that is in Marlo or whether that is in Orbost. Right across the state we are enabling more people to get on a local bus service.