Thursday, 24 September 2026

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (17:52): (2845) My adjournment item for this evening is for the Premier. Premier, it is refreshing to see that you are turning over a new leaf and giving your government a fresh start compared with the previous Labor governments. The action that I seek is for you to respect Victoria’s fastest growing region and provide adequate services to allow families in the Western Metro to get ahead.

I was elected four years ago for half a million Victorians in Melbourne’s west, who are the youngest and fastest growing cohort in this state and who are always served last. Our infrastructure is 40 years behind. Werribee station has not seen a major upgrade since 1983. Trains from Geelong fill to capacity before they even reach Wyndham Vale or Tarneit, the two busiest stations in Victoria. New suburbs like Eynesbury and Brookfield have no bus services. Our roads are more potholes than road. Every school zone is packed with traffic at drop-off and pick-up, schools are full of portables multiple storeys high and our schools are still the fastest growing and most overcrowded in the state. This year they even opened short of teachers. Thirty-five thousand teachers walked out in March, the first statewide strike in 13 years. Melton is still waiting on its hospital in the forward estimates, and we are still waiting on the Melton rail upgrade, which is some kind of evolving commitment. The West Gate Tunnel opened three years late at $10.2 billion, against an original promise of half a billion. The Suburban Rail Loop actually has no delivery date for the west, and children starting prep in Tarneit next year will be close to retirement before they see any benefit for the west at all. The people in the west are actually the ones that build this state’s houses. They drive its freight and they staff the night shifts, and yet they are the part of the state that is left to last to build for.

Family First stands with families where the day actually happens – at home, managing the bills and the house; at school, keeping children safe and parents informed; and at work, standing with the people who build this state and not the ones who tax it. The west needs someone who sees the people of the west at home, at school and at work and who is on their side every single day.