Wednesday, 23 September 2026

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (20:19): (2831) I rise with the new title bequeathed to me by Mr McCracken tonight. I rise to speak on a very important subject, and that is buses. I am always very excited to talk about buses in this place, as members may be aware, and my action this evening is for the Minister for Public Transport. The action that I seek is for the minister to continue engaging with communities in relation to the large tranche of bus reforms that are currently up for consultation on the Engage Vic website in relation to the City of Casey. It has been a real privilege to work on and to see these really important reforms that were announced in this year’s state budget coming into place as part of a raft of measures across the state, including in the south-east, as I have previously mentioned, the 802 and 804 in and around Dandenong North and bus services in the Karingal and Skye areas as well. This particular consultation is in relation to one of the most significant changes proposed in the budget, and I am very much encouraging all of my constituents to engage with this process. Much of Casey’s current bus network was designed in an era when many of those essential connector road links were not quite built yet, as is the case with many new communities that have grown up in the past 10, 20, 30 years. As a result, this presents a real opportunity to provide better, simpler and faster bus services that provide those quicker connections to the essentials: train stations, services, shops, hospitals and everything in between.

One of the things I am most excited about, though, is that we look set to be providing a massive frequency boost to services. One such example – the 888, which runs pretty much in a direct line on Clyde Road down from Berwick down through Clyde North to Clyde – will see its weekday frequencies proposed to be increased from 60 minutes to 20 minutes. That is just one of many examples, including the Sladen Street–Berwick–Cranbourne Road bus, which is to see upgrades too. I have been working with the outstanding member for Cranbourne Pauline Richards, who has been working very hard to secure some of these upgrades as well, in particular the upgrades to routes 795 and 796. These are the routes that go down to the coastal villages of Casey and the Warneet–Tooradin area from Cranbourne, but they service as well some significantly growing areas south of Cranbourne, such as Junction Village and Botanic Ridge. The reforms as proposed would see these two routes now run directly through these suburbs and estates, providing that closer access, and also see a significant frequency boost from just five times a day to a consistent hourly service. Many, many great things are proposed here as well as to the 836 and 846 in the south side of Berwick and extensions to the 897 and 899, and indeed as well with the new 896 proposing to provide coverage for the first time to the Livingstone estate in Cranbourne East. There are many, many such exciting improvements on the way, and I encourage everyone to have their say.