Tuesday, 16 May 2023

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Melbourne Airport rail link

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:01): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Federal funding for Melbourne Airport rail is now at risk of being cut. Why has the minister caved in to federal Labor and not fought harder for Victoria’s fair share?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery) (14:02): For the last eight years the Andrews Labor government has been consistent. It does not matter whether it was a federal Labor government or a federal Liberal–National government. It does not matter if it was any one of the eight or nine different federal Liberal–National infrastructure ministers that I had to deal with, as it was a revolving door – it was Barnaby, then it was Darren, then it was Warren, then it was Jamie, then it was Paul –

David Southwick: On a point of order, the minister is debating the question. I ask you to bring her back to answering the question: why has the minister caved in to federal Labor? It is a simple question.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The minister was being relevant to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: That was exactly the point that I was making. We have been consistent. I think with any federal infrastructure minister that I have dealt with over the past 8½ years and any federal member of the Liberal–National government we have been constant and consistent and we have put Victoria’s case consistently. The Treasurer remembers well that period of time between 2014 and 2018 when 10 per cent of the federal infrastructure allocation came to Victoria – 10 per cent, thanks to your mate and your mates in Canberra. And what was the consequence of that? Well, there was the investment we have made in the Metro Tunnel – the Metro Tunnel that is on schedule to be delivered a full year ahead of schedule, with test trains running towards the end of this year. Not one single dollar of federal infrastructure money has gone into that project.

David Southwick: On a point of order, the minister is not being relevant. This is all about airport rail and the government canning airport rail. I ask you to bring the minister back to the question: why isn’t Victoria getting its fair share when it comes to airport rail?

The SPEAKER: Order! A point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question. The minister was being relevant to the question. I cannot tell the minister how to answer the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: To remind the member for Caulfield, his question went to the specifics of a project – and I will get to that project – but it also went to a fair share of infrastructure funding from Canberra. We could not have been clearer over the past 8½ years as to how we have pushed consistently and constantly for Victoria to get a fair share of infrastructure projects. The Metro Tunnel project that I referred to, if that was the Sydney Metro Tunnel project, it would have received 50–50 funding from the former federal Liberal–National government. Indeed whilst we were advocating to the former federal Liberal government for funding for a project for the airport rail, the then former federal Liberal–National government was busy funding a rail line to a second airport that had not been built yet in New South Wales.

David Southwick: On a point of order, Speaker, again the minister is clearly debating the question. This is not about the past and Liberal governments; this is about the current Labor government, what the Labor government is doing and the minister standing up for our fair share. The minister is not being relevant, and she is debating the question.

The SPEAKER: Order! The question related to federal government infrastructure funding. The minister is being relevant to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: Speaker, I will end on this point. Not once in the eight years that the Liberal–National government were in office did I get a question about our fair share of infrastructure funding from those opposite when it was their mates in Canberra dudding Victorians on their fair share.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:06): Why has the minister supported the federal Labor government’s prioritising of the Cheltenham to Box Hill line over the Melbourne Airport rail project?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery) (14:07): Just so the member is clear, that is the Suburban Rail Loop you are referring to – the project that those opposite have told the Victorian community repeatedly that they would scrap. I note that just yesterday the Leader of the Opposition – I am sure the member for Glen Waverley might be interested in this; the member for Ringwood, if he was here, would be interested in this; and the member for Box Hill and the member for Clarinda – committed once again to that great Liberal policy to scrap the Suburban Rail Loop. You absolutely committed to scrapping the suburban – you cannot say one thing on Neil Mitchell and another thing in here.

David Southwick: On a point of order, Speaker, again the minister is debating the question. Question time is not the time to attack the opposition. I ask you to bring the minister back to answering the question, particularly about airport rail and why that has been canned at the expense of the Cheltenham to Box Hill line.

The SPEAKER: The minister was being relevant, but I do ask her to cease attacks on the opposition.

Jacinta ALLAN: Just to conclude, the federal government have been clear in the terms of the review that they have commissioned that their election commitments are not included as part of that review and importantly they have committed that the funding will remain in Victoria.