Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Government performance

Ms WARD (Eltham) (17:13): Here we are, the last day, and we are grieving. My condolences to all those who have lost lives during this pandemic. There is no question there need to be improvements in our health system. In fact we have learned a lot in the last few years. This pandemic has, sadly, taught us much. It is a great pity that, unlike other oppositions in this country, those opposite did not work with the government or the health advice to help keep people safe. Instead they chose to regularly undermine health advice at any opportunity, to drum up fear instead of hope and to bathe in the cold water of hate rather than work to protect health.

I grieve for the conservatives of this state. Conservatism by its very nature does not like change; it really does not like difference. We have seen this with the constant opposition by those opposite to so many of our Big Build projects—scare campaigns, even trying a rail scare campaign in my own community with the North East Link. Sadly, scare campaigns are all the conservatives have in their toolkit. Conservatives thrive on fear—the fear of change, the fear of the unknown, the fear of difference. They use fear as a vote-gathering activity.

Wherever they can find it, wherever they can drum it up, conservatives use fear as a motivation for people to vote for them. They do not use hope; that is not in their wheelhouse. Hope is for us—us, those of us here on this side of the chamber, those of us on this side of the house who believe in government, who believe in helping people, who believe that we can work together to make things better. We believe that there is a role for government in people’s lives, because we are here to help them, we are here to provide safety nets; we are not here to leave people on their own. Sadly, I grieve for the conservatives who view it that way, who believe in small government and who do not think that there is a role for government to help people lead the best lives that they can.

What I grieve for is the fact that conservatives do not rely on good policy. They do not look at how to make a better world, a more compassionate world, a more creative, more inclusive world. They do not rely on hope, they only rely on fear. That is how we see trans kids disgracefully used as political fodder by conservatives. They do not care about those kids, their families, their schoolfriends, the people around them; they care about drumming up votes sourced through fear and hate, and that is so shameful. We have seen so many examples, so many sad examples, examples for which I grieve, of conservatives using fear and hate over the last few years, and for this I grieve heavily.

I grieve for conservatives and their fear of change. I grieve for the lack of opportunities that conservatives see that change can deliver. Change gives us hope but it also gives us opportunities. The investment in our Big Build has not just transformed the built environment, it has not just transformed how we move around the state and how the state looks, it has transformed the jobs that we have and the opportunities that are available to every Victorian. I grieve for a bunch of conservatives who cannot see the wood for the trees, who cannot see the opportunities that are here in this state that come through change, that come through investment, that come through government involvement.

What matters to Victorians is a government that has a record of getting things done, like this one. What matters to Victorians is a government that understands their needs and acts on them, like this one. What matters to this state is a government like ours, a government that gets things done and does things well. The Big Build is an unprecedented $90 billion investment in Victoria’s transport infrastructure, and that is 165 road and rail projects.

So you want to talk about what the government has been investing in in this state. What would you cut? It cannot just be suburban rail, because suburban rail does not fund everything, as we have seen with the recent trouble that the opposition had with maths, where it is not $35 billion, it is $12 billion or $11 billion, but it is not really, because it could be $8 billion—but no, $8 billion will not be spent in the regions, $8 billion will be spent here, but it will be up to $8 billion; we are not quite sure. So where will the cuts come from? The money that we are investing in our road and rail projects will help us keep moving around in the decades to come rather than spending time at choke points, time on the road or time at train stations, bus stops and tram stops which could instead be spent with our families or our friends or even just vegging out on the couch. This investment in infrastructure helps us get some of our time back; it helps free us up to do other things that we want to do.

We saw how conservatives tried to use sky rail fear campaigns to turn people against level crossings. We are up to, what, 66 done already, and people love the removal of these level crossings because of how it has changed their lives. They have embraced this change because it has brought so much to their communities, and I can say that anybody who lives in the northern suburbs, anyone who has driven down Bell Street in the last few weeks, would be amazed at how well Bell Street flows because of these level crossing removals. It is fantastic, and the opportunities that have come through this investment are just terrific. It creates jobs, it creates opportunities and it frees people up. It is not just jobs in concrete, not just jobs in digging holes, in laying down asphalt, in doing engineering. There are all of these other jobs that support our Big Build. There are more than 50 000 direct and indirect jobs that have been created because of our Big Build.

We are not only upgrading road and rail infrastructure but creating great community spaces along the way. Our Big Build projects have delivered more than 380 000 square metres of new open space. I see the member for Mordialloc here, and I know how much his community has benefited from the Big Build, from the level crossing removals, but also from these new spaces and investment in clubs, in sporting facilities and in other local community assets that have been so important to people. That 380 000 square metres of new open space is the size of our Royal Botanic Gardens. This is playgrounds, it is dog parks, it is sports ovals, it is courts. It is so many different things that people can enjoy with the time that they are actually saving because they are not caught in traffic or they are not caught on overcrowded trains. These important community assets would not be there if not for our Big Build, if not for the fearlessness with which this government embraces change, the fearlessness with which we make things happen.

We have planted more than 1.8 million seedlings, trees and shrubs. That is the equivalent of around 25 Wilsons Proms that have been planted in this state. We are also linking people with active transport options, delivering more than 120 kilometres of walking and cycling paths, with another 370 kilometres of paths and upgraded cycling infrastructure to come. This includes the new path that is being built between Greensborough and Montmorency in my own community, which is a fantastic investment that I know matters to people. It matters to people, as does the extension of the Diamond Creek Trail to Hurstbridge from Diamond Creek that we have recently opened. These are things that matter to people.

We know that jobs are important to people and we know that valuable jobs are important to people, so the Big Build has supported thousands of jobs and helped boost our economy. There are 18 000 people in Victoria who are working directly on Major Transport Infrastructure Authority projects. For every 100 jobs supported directly, an average of 200 jobs are supported across the economy. So let us translate that into something like suburban rail and think about the job potential that is being created through that important infrastructure investment. It is a fantastic project that matters to people, and I can tell you a bunch of people it matters to are the people of Box Hill, who love this project and see its worth. It matters to them. During peak construction MTIA projects are expected to support around 38 000 indirect jobs. Including direct and indirect jobs, that is over 50 000 jobs across our state and across our economy.

More than 168 million hours have been worked on our Big Build projects. That is a lot of people being pretty busy, and being busy matters to people. Having a good job that pays well matters to people, and that is why our Big Build and our infrastructure projects actually do matter to people. It is something that they care about. More than 5.4 million work hours have been clocked up by trainees, apprentices and cadets since 2018 thanks to our Major Projects Skills Guarantee. These are the things that do matter to people. They want opportunities for people who are coming out of the jail system, for people who have struggled, for people from migrant communities and for people who have struggled to find an opportunity because there have been barriers in the way. We have been opening up doors, and anyone who thinks that does not matter is someone who is not out there talking to communities, because they do matter to people. There have been more than 2.4 million hours worked by Aboriginal people on our projects. That matters—it matters absolutely.

I will give you a bit of a breakdown, with your indulgence, Deputy Speaker. With the Metro Tunnel there have been 7000 jobs supported during construction. With the West Gate Tunnel there have been 6000 jobs supported during construction. With Major Road Projects Victoria they have had 2224 workers on projects as at 31 July 2022. The Level Crossing Removal Project has had 5586 workers on LXRP projects as at the end of this financial year. The North East Link Program has 1200 currently working on NELP projects and will have 10 000 jobs over the life of the project. I can tell you that that matters to people in the north-east. We have seen it with the skills and jobs centre, where people have been knocking on the door saying, ‘I want a job closer to home. Sign me up. Please, sign me up now’. With the Suburban Rail Loop it is 800 direct jobs in the initial and early works for SRL east and 800 jobs during the construction of SRL east. SRL east and north will support up to 24 000 jobs during construction. Again, these are jobs that matter to people. The Geelong fast rail will support nearly 3000 jobs, and Melbourne Airport rail will support up to 8000 jobs.

These jobs are not just for blokes in hard hats. This government has been working hard to get more and more women into transport. I can tell you, to women this matters. Having well-paid jobs, having jobs that are respected, having jobs that give them flexibility and having jobs that can help them demonstrate their skill set are important to Victorian women. They do matter. So I want to give a shout-out to the women in transport steering committee for all their work as we work out how to create more pathways for women to work in the transport sector. We have recently seen the 500th woman to graduate as a train driver, making up about a third of drivers, and it was great to be at Flinders Street station with the minister for transport, seeing those women drive those trains.

As part of the Victorian Big Build there are even more opportunities on more than 165 rail and road projects across the state, and some of the jobs that are there include traffic controllers, signalling specialists, engineers and train drivers, machinery operators, project managers and directors. These are jobs that are currently vacant. These are opportunities for people in our state, including women. Transport construction is rich with challenge and reward and allows women to transform outcomes for communities across the state. Women can take on positions of leadership and influence as part of Victoria’s Big Build, with thousands of jobs in engineering and construction available now and into the future. We are actively recruiting women into graduate programs and supporting experienced women to develop further education and other programs.

We are working to transform this state—the fabric of this state and what it looks like. And this matters; it absolutely matters. We are giving people in this state hope by giving them opportunity, and it is only a conservative group of people, only a conservative government, that take away that hope, that take away that sense of opportunity, that take away the fabric of a state, because all they do is cut and slash. Projects like the Metro Tunnel, West Gate Tunnel and Suburban Rail Loop are supporting the development of women in the sector and unlocking leadership opportunities for women. It is about growing the next generation of skilled female workers in Victoria. In 10 or 15 years the workplace in this state will be dramatically reformed—it will be substantially changed—through the work of this government, which has created opportunities for so many people.

The Department of Transport’s women in transport strategy and action plan was developed to ensure that progress continues towards achieving gender equality across the transport industry, and we are making great strides in getting this done. We are really achieving good outcomes in helping women find their place in transport as well as in construction.

By the end of 2024 we will have increased the overall number of women working in the transport sector to 30 per cent, the number of women in senior roles in the public sector to 50 per cent and in the private transport sector to 30 per cent. We are doing some amazing work. We are doing things that absolutely matter to people. To think that this investment, that giving hope to people, does not matter is foolhardy. To think that the way forward for the future of our state is through fear and division is absolutely foolhardy, and it is only a recipe for defeat. It is only a recipe for defeat, because it is only hope that will give Victorians what they need, and that is only with a Labor government.