Thursday, 18 May 2023

Melbourne Airport rail link

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (14:10): My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to his emphatic statement in the house yesterday that ‘we promised those things to the people of Victoria and we will deliver them’. Treasurer, the government promised to deliver Melbourne Airport rail by 2029. Why did you break this promise?

Tim PALLAS (Werribee – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Trade and Investment) (14:11): I thank the member for his question, and I make the point that this government is constantly working to achieve the things that we committed to for the Victorian people. What we say we do, we will do. We will deliver, and they can be assured of that. As the member would be well aware, the federal government has announced a review into any projects that they have not adopted as their own pre-election commitments. That is a reasonable thing to do. Why should the current government be paying for projects that they have had no capacity first to assess and adopt the view it is entirely appropriate? After all, I am hearing from the partner of the Liberal Party, the Leader of the National Party, that we need partners. We do, and we need genuine partners who are committed to projects that they have done appropriate due diligence about and who have confidence in the integrity of those projects and that they can be delivered and be delivered appropriately and in scope. We know that there are some projects that are struggling. We saw the outrageous behaviour of the National Party, who saw infrastructure as being nothing but a pork-barrel effort, where something like $130 billion worth of national infrastructure funding –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, the Treasurer knows that he should not debate the question and that he needs to be factual. He was asked why the government have broken their promise in relation to the delivery of the Melbourne Airport rail.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer was being relevant to the question. I remind members that a point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question.

Tim PALLAS: A partnership actually means that we have to be assured that we are working in coordination with the federal government. They are making a very substantial contribution to the state of Victoria when it comes to infrastructure spending. Over the next four years the allocations to the state of Victoria will hit 23.5 per cent. This is in comparison to the allocations of infrastructure to the state of Victoria that the Liberal–National parties made.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! the member for Evelyn is warned!

Tim PALLAS: In fact we know that during the period 2014–2018 we got less than 10 per cent under the Liberal–National federal government. We did not hear a word of outrage from those opposite. In fact some of them told us we should take our medicine. I do not know what that means, but I will tell you what the people of Victoria come to expect and can rely on with this government: that we will continue to invest in the projects that we promised the people of Victoria were vitally important. We will continue to partner with a federal government that for the first time in years is starting to demonstrate a willingness to work cooperatively and to put their hand in their pocket and resource real projects that grow the state of Victoria. We have at the time of the last budget $185 billion of projects commencing or continuing in this state, and it will grow the economy. (Time expired)

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (14:14): Will the Treasurer guarantee that the government will retain its $5 billion funding allocation to the promised airport rail link?

Tim PALLAS (Werribee – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Trade and Investment) (14:15): I feel like I should defer to the Premier on this; it would be far more entertaining. Can I say that we have a budget. It is coming up. It will be on Tuesday, and all will be revealed in this budget. I can tell you it will be a budget that –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Evelyn can leave the chamber for 1 hour.

Member for Evelyn withdrew from chamber.

Tim PALLAS: certainly will continue to grow this economy and honour the commitments that we have made to the Victorian people.