Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:51): (2564) My question is to the Premier. We have just seen that the Labor government has been secretly taxing Victoria’s public transport users, and this has absolutely no net benefit to my people of Gippsland. Indeed one of my constituents is so furious she has written to me this morning. Clearly this is not acceptable. We know that Gippsland’s public transport continues to decline. We know that the reliability has gone backwards. We know the Gippsland line is now 40 minutes slower than it was four decades ago. Trains are regularly overcrowded, and some services no longer operate through to Southern Cross station. Towns’ bus timetables have been changed, and they have been changed without proper consultation with seniors and the community, again disadvantaging my constituents. My constituent asks: why has the government secretly taxed Gippsland commuters to fund a suburban Melbourne rail project while forcing them to be working with and using unreliable services in Gippsland?