Thursday, 24 September 2026

 Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:20): (2855) Not in the history of this 60th Parliament, not in the history of this chamber and in fact – I will go one step further – not in the history of this Parliament has one single toilet been spoken about so much. It is only appropriate that on this last occasion we bring this yet again to the Parliament’s attention and perhaps more specifically, given we have a new Premier, to the Premier’s attention. I would like to ask the new Premier in the few days he has left before caretaker mode kicks in to consider very seriously my repeated – I would say consistent – requests for a public toilet at Ringwood East train station. If anyone is in any doubt, I am only too happy to provide the address. I am happy too to provide a personal tour of the site for the Premier; I am that generous with my time. I am also happy to take him up to the existing toilet block, which is behind the IGA. In fact when the IGA shuts it has no lighting whatsoever. It is a very dank, somewhat smelly –

David Davis interjected.

Nick McGOWAN: Dangerous, Mr Davis – a very dangerous place. I would not want to see anyone going up that laneway in the small hours of the morning. You never know what you might find before you even get to that toilet block.

David Davis interjected.

Nick McGOWAN: There are certainly no PSOs, since those opposite have unfortunately stripped out the PSOs from Ringwood East train station.

Georgie Crozier interjected.

Nick McGOWAN: It is a great shame. I digress for a second from what is critical, and what is critical is a public lavatory, or, as they say in America, an ablution block, whatever that means; I do not really know.

Georgie Crozier interjected.

Nick McGOWAN: Old-fashioned English, is it? Well, whatever it is, we just want one teeny, tiny toilet we can all share. There is no doubt about sharing. We are all sharers in this place. We have proven that today. We have proven that many other times. In fact every time we step on a plane we all prove we can share a toilet. All I am proposing, Premier, is that we do likewise at Ringwood East train station. We have spent – that is, the Victorian taxpayer – willingly or not, billions on two level crossing removals and one brand new train station at Ringwood East. It is an enormous amount of money. President, I know you are very familiar with this site, it being part of your constituency as well. While we welcome the investment of the significant funds to do those level crossing removals and the new train station, it came without actually installing a single public toilet, and that is a great travesty.

While I jest about my repeated requests for that toilet, there is a serious point here, and that is this: if we are going to have a public transport system that is accessible to everyone – to women, to pregnant women, to the elderly, to anyone who has an ability constraint – you have to make it accessible. It is not accessible when you do not provide a public toilet. It should be standard fare in this state that when we build a brand new train station it comes with a toilet for all abilities at all times so everyone can access the public transport network as we would want them to, because that is how we get people out of their cars and into public transport.