Tuesday, 25 August 2026

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (22:33): (2731) My adjournment matter is for the Premier. Most people understand that the SRL is a completely failed project. Steve Bracks says it is unaffordable and that the airport rail should have been done first. Steve Conroy, the Labor luminary, said that it is literally ‘a dog of a project’ that the former leadership committed to and that ‘It’s sabotaged the budget going forward’. Right now the project is swallowing 20 per cent of the entire Victorian infrastructure budget at the price of essential needs locally and across the state.

The only reason it has been tolerated locally in Glen Waverley is that the local Labor member John Mullahy promised that, when complete, there would be benefits of interconnectivity and a guarantee that lost parking would be replaced. Businesses have been hanging on, hoping and believing in that promise. But suddenly after eight years the Labor government say that the SRL costs too much and savings must be made – and no promise is safe. Any normal human being hearing the suggestion that there will be a review of costs would think, ‘Okay, right, we’ll find savings in materials. We’ll reduce construction costs by making it more efficient. We’ll reduce complexity.’ But they have not done any of that, because that would have actually involved something approaching honest intellectual effort. No, instead, this cack-handed, lame-duck, eight-weeks-from-caretaker government simply said, ‘You know what, instead of doing the hard work of reviewing the project delivery properly, we’ll just throw Glen Waverley under a bus. That’s easier,’ and that is what it has done.

The promised new car park should have already been built and operational. Instead today they will find out that it has actually been scrapped. Those promises were made by the SRL, the Labor government and the Labor member for Glen Waverley John Mullahy. They have broken their word to dozens of businesses, hundreds of employees and thousands of Glen Waverley locals. I have had calls from businesses today – many calls. The traders association is taking many, many calls. The Glen Waverley community, especially the business community, are not going to forget this. Glen Waverley has had to put up with year upon year of disruption, financial losses, damaged businesses, road closures, crime, potholes, shoddy services and compulsory acquisitions, including of an active church and an RSL. But now, frankly, your reputations are trashed. They are going to make sure you pay a price for doing this. The action I seek from the Premier is to confirm what consultation was done with Glen Waverley businesses before they cancelled the car park and the station connections – and to tell the truth.