Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Motions
Level crossing removals
Motions
Level crossing removals
That this house notes that:
(1) the government has removed 72 dangerous and congested level crossings;
(2) in 2018 the government promised to remove 75 level crossings by 2025, and is already two years ahead of schedule; and
(3) the government will remove a total of 110 level crossings by 2030.
I am absolutely delighted to speak to the motion that I have just moved, and whilst we are in August 2023 I want to take colleagues back to the end of 2013, where at the time – some will remember that time; those in the construction industry remember that time – there was not much going on in the construction industry here in Victoria. There was no infrastructure pipeline to speak of, projects were being promised and never delivered and there was a bit of a sad and sorry state. The industry was crying out for a pipeline from the government of projects that it could not just support and put its resources to but, more importantly, employ people in. I remember at the time unemployment rates were going up, jobs were going out the door, and I also remember that time well because the then Labor opposition was working very hard on putting forward a range of policy offerings to the Victorian community. One such document that we released at the end of 2013 was Project 10,000. Now, I know the use of props is disorderly, but I do have it in my hand: Project 10,000 – trains, roads, jobs. It was a weighty tome, as we can see, and it referred to how we were going to build the metro rail, we were going to invest in roads – I will come back to level crossings – but most importantly we were going to support a pipeline of projects that was going to back in at least 10,000 jobs across the Victorian community, 10,000 jobs. Now, one of the other key –
A member interjected.
Jacinta ALLAN: Oh, hang on. I will get to how we went. One of the key elements in Project 10,000 was the commitment to removing 50 dangerous and congested level crossings, and we actually said that given there had only been seven level crossings removed in the previous 10 years, we set a progressive target. We said that 20 would be gone by 2018 and 50 would be gone by 2022.
Jacinta ALLAN: Well, I take up the interjection from the member for Cranbourne, who used that much-loved Dennis Denuto phrase, ‘Tell him he’s dreaming’. That is exactly what the Premier of the day said in response. Well, not exactly, I may be paraphrasing just a little bit; however, he did cast doubt on this commitment around level crossings. Dr Napthine, the Premier of the day, said he did not think it was possible to remove 50 level crossings in eight years. He also went on to say it would cause enormous chaos on our roads and rail: ‘When you do a level crossing you have to minimise the disruption.’ He is a clever lad. He is a clever lad, that former Premier. He was right on that point, but he was not right on the point that it was not possible to remove 50 crossings in eight years, because guess what, it is 2023, we have removed 72 level crossings and indeed we are far ahead of schedule. We removed 17 level crossings in 2018 alone, which took us well beyond the 20, which meant that not only did we get to removing 50 level crossings by 2022, we were so far ahead of schedule. At this point – and I will come back to this point on many occasions in my contribution – this is all thanks to the hard work of the workforce who are working across the construction industry, the manufacturing industry and the engineering industry, but also a shout-out to those other industries that support the construction sector: the catering sector, the hospitality sector and professional services. There are a massive range of professions that work on our level crossings, and each and every one of them, I can tell you because I have met quite a few of them on my journey, are so proud of the work that they are doing to get rid of dangerous and congested level crossings.
But I digress from where I was on the chronological story. As I said, we started off with that commitment to having 20 gone by 2018 and 50 by 2022. When we realised we were so far ahead of schedule, we updated the commitment to make it 75 level crossings by 2025. As I have already pointed out to the house, we have just clocked over number 72 – and I will come back to 71 and 72 in the seat of Caulfield in a moment. Then we got so far ahead of schedule that in 2021 – remember that in 2021, on our original time line, we were only meant to be getting to 50. Well, we have far exceeded that. In 2021 we updated that to be 85 by 2025, and then again we committed last year to getting that program to 110 dangerous and congested level crossings being removed across the Melbourne metropolitan network by 2030.
Because of this work rate, not only have we been able to commit to removing 110 dangerous and congested level crossings by 2030, we have also been able to see commitments to entire lines being level crossing free – entire train corridors – like that of my good friend the member for Sunbury. The Sunbury line will be level crossing free. My good friend – you all have to be my good friends now; we are all good friends on this side of the house. Cranbourne will be level crossing free. Pakenham – our great member for Pakenham – will be level crossing free. Lilydale will be level crossing free. Werribee will be level crossing free as well. And do you know what this also means? It does not only mean that those corridors are safer corridors, it also means that we can run more trains on each and every one of those corridors.
This is particularly important, because do you know what else is happening in the next couple of years? It is something else that was committed to in Project 10,000: the opening of the Metro Tunnel. The Metro Tunnel is going to give the Melbourne train network one continuous train line, a 97-kilometre-long level-crossing-free corridor from Sunbury to Pakenham. So the member for Sunbury, if he wants to pop over and visit his good friend the member for Pakenham, can jump on one of our high-capacity metro trains, one of the brand new trains that are made here in Victoria – again, another commitment and another deliberate policy setting of the Andrews Labor government. He can jump on that train, that brand new high-capacity train, and travel all the way through to Pakenham. He could get off at Dandenong and pop over and see the member for Cranbourne, and all of that journey will be level crossing free. This is what happens when you have a set of policies that back in a local workforce, whether it is in the manufacturing of rolling stock or whether it is in having a program that supports a pipeline. It is also what happens when you have a government that tackles the big and complex projects like the Metro Tunnel, and we are determined to back it in.
A member: There are a lot of women.
Jacinta ALLAN: I will come to women; I am coming to women on these projects as well. On the journey, we have not always had the universal support of this place for our level crossing removal projects or indeed for our Metro Tunnel project either. But I am not talking about the Metro Tunnel today; there will be another time for the Metro Tunnel. On level crossings, we, as I said, have removed 72 level crossings right across metropolitan Melbourne, in all aspects of Melbourne. Also, importantly – I said I would come back to this question of jobs – we have had more than 84 million hours worked to date on level crossings. More than 6000 people have worked on the level crossings directly. But also, as I said, there is that indirect employment benefit.
Couple that with our free TAFE program, which is making sure that more young people can go in and get a trade. I know this because I have had these young people tell me this when I have visited the projects: they know that they can go and get an apprenticeship, they know that they can study at TAFE and they know that they can have confidence in their future because there is a pipeline of work ahead for them. I have also, on project after project, talked to workers who have had a continuous pipeline of work. They have worked in Frankston and then they have gone across and worked in the western suburbs. I remember well talking to some who had worked on Skye Road at Frankston and then they went up –
A member interjected.
Jacinta ALLAN: They like their local member too. They also went a little bit further towards the city and worked on the level crossing removal at Toorak Road, so again, a continuous pipeline of work. But it has also meant that we have been able to apply our social procurement policy settings. We love our social procurement policy settings. We have been able to embed policy settings – deliberate decisions the government has made to require certain things of our contractors and tenderers – to do things like mandate the Major Projects Skills Guarantee. It requires a minimum of 10 per cent of all hours worked on our projects to be made up of apprentices, trainees and cadets, which again goes back to that opportunity to study at TAFE – you can then see your pathway into work as well. It ties in with how we have been able to put in place our women in construction strategy. This is not just helping more women come into the industry but also understanding the barriers that exist in the industry that stop them from staying in the industry or progressing to more senior levels in the industry. Something that I am particularly proud of is the way we have applied the social enterprise strategy to the Level Crossing Removal Project. Ours was the first government organisation to adopt a social procurement policy, and this has really made a big difference. For example, the Yarra View Nursery, which is a great –
Members interjecting.
Jacinta ALLAN: The Yarra View Nursery. They are a great social enterprise. They have worked on the Bayswater and Heatherdale level crossing projects, with plant and landscaping services. There is Outlook Environmental, who have worked on the Kororoit Creek level crossing removal. We have partnered with the YMCA. We have got the Rail Academy Newport. The list goes on and on of social enterprises who can also plan for their future, who can also design programs that support people with a disability, people from migrant or refugee communities and women coming into our projects, because they can see that there is a pipeline of projects that they can partner with.
All of this comes back to having deliberate policy settings that accompany your construction pipeline to make sure you are driving these outcomes and you are getting that broader benefit: from every dollar that is invested in a level crossing removal you are driving that benefit harder and deeper into the Victorian community because you have those policy settings. Amongst all the various benefits of the Level Crossing Removal Project, whether it is safer communities, less congested communities or the ability to run more trains, these are the human benefits that come from having a construction policy setting that is tied up with your social policy setting that can deliver these outcomes, and they are some great outcomes.
In terms of making local streets safer – and I know the member for Box Hill knows this well – we have just ticked off the two level crossings in Surrey Hills. They were numbers 69 and 70 on our list of level crossings that we wanted to remove. Two people, two older women, lost their lives at one of those level crossings a few years ago. That level crossing has now been removed and that community has much, much safer and less congested streets to support their activities in that local area.
On that issue of congestion, I have had a lot of feedback over the now eight and a bit years that we have been running this program about how local people have seen local benefits from reduced congestion in their community. I will go to a couple of examples now. Colleagues may recall that we removed nine level crossings on the Dandenong line. We did it by elevating the rail line. We are remembering this now: sky rail was a thing.
Jacinta ALLAN: It is funny the member for Sunbury asks me to remind the house of what some opposite described sky rail as. They said it would create ghettos in those communities. When you go down to those communities today, you see a huge amount of open space. Not only have we made those communities safer and less congested, we have also been able to invest in the new open space that has been created where there are all sorts of recreation activities. There are both active and passive recreation spaces that, having driven through there at different parts of the day and night, are active spaces.
Josh Bull: Not a ghetto.
Jacinta ALLAN: They are far from a ghetto. That is just one example of many – I will come back to this in a moment – where we have had to work incredibly hard and ignore the loud, negative voices of those opposite, who tried to whip up fear and scare campaigns in local communities, and understand that there was something more important here: getting rid of those level crossings, making those communities safer and less congested and bringing broader community benefits as a result.
I got distracted momentarily from talking about reducing congestion, and I was talking about sky rail. I remember well receiving an email from a courier, someone who travels by their very nature. They have got a van and they are travelling around those suburbs of Melbourne every single day. Like many in business, time is money, so getting stuck at a boom gate – remembering some of these boom gates on the Dandenong corridor were down for 87 per cent of the 2-hour morning peak period –
Paul Edbrooke: That is a lot of time wasted.
Jacinta ALLAN: It is a lot of time wasted. What also was a challenge, if you were in the courier business, was the unpredictability of when you would get caught at a boom gate. I remember well that this courier who wrote to me talked about how the level crossing removals on the Dandenong line had transformed his life. It had taken so much stress out of his work life because he had predictability about the time it would take to do his job, and as a consequence it gave him more time to do the things he wanted to do. For some of us that is time with family and friends, but whatever it is that you want to do outside of work, you get more time to do that.
There is also the example in Glenroy. This is a terrific project where, again, we have had the opportunity to not just remove the level crossing in Glenroy but we have built a new station and created new open space for the Glenroy community to enjoy. The very day that level crossing was removed I received a message from a mum about the time that she was able to save. For those of us who do the school drop-off, particularly if you have got multiple drop-offs, it is a challenge at the best of times. Adding in the stress of getting stuck at a level crossing would just make your head explode at that particular time of the day. Well, we have removed that stress. But she also said that in the time she saved she was able to stop and get a babycino with her child. So there you go: it is a win for the local coffee shop as well as making that community safer.
We cannot talk about the history of level crossings in this state and how we have been able to progressively get on and remove level crossings without remembering some of the challenges we have had on our journey. I am sorry to say to the house we have had a few. There have been the challenges of making sure we have got a supply of skilled workforce, of making sure we have got an adequate supply of materials.
Paul Edbrooke: They sound like opportunities.
Jacinta ALLAN: Funny you should say that, member for Frankston. One of the opportunities that has come from the supply of materials is of course that other great local content policy that we committed to, which is to make sure that all of the steel being used on our level crossings is 100Â per cent Australian steel. 100Â per cent Australian steel is used on our level crossings, which again provides for more jobs in our local supply chain, which in turn supports the industry more broadly.
As I said, I was running through some of the challenges. There are the workforce supply challenges, and I have mentioned some of the bespoke programs we have been able to establish to address that, which also bring that double benefit of bringing other groups into the program. There is the resources challenge that I have spoken of. We have worked through some of the procurement challenges by setting up a programmatic approach, which has delivered us enormous efficiency in the delivery of these level crossings and has provided for a significant budget saving, which means that the level crossing removal program is not only ahead of time, it is under budget as well.
A member: Extraordinary!
Jacinta ALLAN: Which is extraordinary for a project of this size and scale. But, as I said, there have been some other challenges, and those challenges come from being opposed every single step of the way on just about every single level crossing site by those opposite.
A member: Who would do that?
Jacinta ALLAN: Those who were not interested in seeing their local communities safer and less congested, those who were not interested in supporting a pipeline for a local workforce, those who in government had the chance to remove level crossings and did not, and indeed when we came up with a plan to remove them mocked us and said, ‘Tell them they’re dreaming; it’ll never happen’.
A member: 72 in eight years.
Jacinta ALLAN: That is right: 72 in eight years, and we are not stopping there. We are not stopping there on our way to 110 by 2030. Let me remind the house of some of the steps that were taken by some to oppose and even stop – can you imagine wanting to stop this sort of activity? Stop the economic activity, stop the community support, stop making streets more safe and less congested? Well, there were some that took us to court. There were some that supported court action against the sky rail project. There were some that wanted to keep some of the most congested level crossings in Melbourne. There were some that supported court action to keep those level crossings in place. That was before the 2018 election. Before the 2022 election there was a candidate for the Liberal Party who launched their own court action to try and stop the removal of the Surrey Hills level crossing. As I mentioned before, and as our fabulous member for Box Hill knows very well, a tragedy occurred at that site. The crossing was dangerous, it was congested and that was a complex project. It was complex from a construction point of view and it was complex in terms of how you could work with the local community, but there were some who would have preferred to have seen that level crossing stay in place and who supported the attempted court action to keep that level crossing in place. Also, and I said this earlier: there were some who said we could not get rid of any level crossings on the Frankston line. The former Leader of the Opposition, who, in that first term, as we were gearing up to get rid of level –
Josh Bull: Who was that?
Jacinta ALLAN: Who was that? I think you might remember it was the member for Bulleen, member for Sunbury. He went out there and tried to suggest to the Frankston community that we were not going to get rid of any level crossings on the Frankston line. How many level crossings on the Frankston line do you think we got rid of? Eighteen. Eighteen level crossings, on the way to making that train line level crossing free. There are some that say we only get rid of level crossings in seats that are held by the government. Now, we are two-thirds of the chamber, so we do have quite a few level crossings in our seats, in places like Pakenham, making Pakenham level crossing free, and Melton. There is never a day that goes by without mentioning the Melton level crossings. And in Thomastown, at Keon Park – we are getting rid of level crossings in all parts of the city.
As the member for Caulfield knows well, numbers 71 and 72 of the level crossings that were removed were in Glen Huntly – at Glen Huntly Road and Neerim Road. But do you know what? We did not have the full support of the local member for that project. We did not have his support. He was out there writing letters to me about trees and about local complaints. He was attending the community engagement forums, trying to have a crack at people for just wanting to get the information that they wanted to get on these projects. We do remove level crossings across all parts of Melbourne. The fact that the Liberal Party have got a diminishing number of seats compared to the diminishing number of level crossings is a matter for them.
The member for Monbulk has momentarily left the chamber, but I remember that the member for Evelyn was not particularly happy about those level crossings. At the last election, in Ringwood, the Liberal candidate campaigned against it, as they did in Bayswater. The list goes on and on. At every turn the community has had a very, very clear understanding that only Labor removes level crossings and works incredibly hard to address the challenges, to work through the barriers to why those level crossings should be removed, and it is only the Liberals who want to keep them there. And if there are those who have got any doubt, who think that I might be gilding the lily a little bit, let me tell you why at the 2018 election –
Members interjecting.
Jacinta ALLAN: Well, let me read you the 2018 Liberal Party policy document that as a cost-saving measure was going to cut the level crossing removal program. You were happy to keep level crossings in place as a cost-saving measure. And I will give them their credit: in 2022 they had seen a little bit of the light of day. They had come up with eight level crossings that they thought they would get rid of – Sandringham and Malvern got a good run in those eight – but not a single level crossing in the west. I want to say this: the west has been talked about quite a bit. The west gets a good run, as it should. The only commitment the Liberal Party had to the western suburbs on level crossings was to keep level crossings in place. They did not make one commitment to remove level crossings in the western suburbs. And of course where does this all come from? It all comes from the fact that when they were in government they did not remove any. They did not fund or finish any level crossings. They mocked the Labor opposition at the time. They said we were dreaming. They said we could not get rid of these level crossings and have tried every single step of the way to block and stop the removal of 72 dangerous and congested level crossings across the suburbs of Melbourne. Well, what we can see is that the Andrews Labor government has been determined to push on and deliver the removal of all of those level crossings and deliver the much-needed construction pipeline that has supported so many jobs. It has also supported a supply chain pipeline. I have not touched a lot on the manufacturing sector, but the manufacturing sector is a big supplier to our program. The concrete industry in particular is a big supplier to our program. I remember going – and actually I think the member for Melton was with me – to a concrete batching plant at Cobblebank –
A member: Westkon.
Jacinta ALLAN: Westkon. I remember it well because this was during those very difficult and challenging years of the pandemic. We were able to continue to support our level crossing removal program at that time. The owner of that business talked to us about how during those really difficult and challenging economic times he was able to not only keep his business going but employ more people because he had a pipeline of contracts associated with the level crossing removal program. And it is that confidence, that confidence that the government is consistent and determined and committed to a pipeline, that means that they can invest in their business and importantly, too, invest in people – invest in their people, invest in their workforce and invest in our community. That is the absolute benefit amongst, as I have said before, so many across our level crossing program. As I have said, we have removed 72. There were 180 when we started. We have removed 72, so obviously there are a few more to go. We have got that commitment to remove – there are a lot of numbers here – 110 by 2030. If you go to Pakenham right now, it is just a hive of activity as we make Pakenham level crossing free, elevate the line and build a brand new station – two stations.
Jacinta ALLAN: The member for Pakenham has reminded me of something I have not mentioned so far, and I am glad she did. When we have had the opportunity to do more by getting into the metropolitan train network and removing level crossings, we have grabbed that opportunity to do more with both hands, building new stations and extending track, like we are extending the metropolitan train line by a further 2 kilometres out to East Pakenham with another new station to support the growing community out there. This is something that, again, has been opposed and ridiculed by those opposite. The opportunity to grow Melbourne’s train network, to make the biggest investment in decades in Melbourne’s brownfields train network, has been another significant benefit from the level crossing removal program, and as I said, we are on track to remove 110 by 2030. I could talk about Melton again and I could talk about the removal at Keon Park, but I have already mentioned the six train lines across our metropolitan network that will be level crossing free as a result of this program of work. This is what you have when you have a government that has done the hard work, has the policy settings, has the programmatic response, addresses the challenges that do invariably come along with projects and has the will to continue to get on and support transformational investment in our train network.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Caulfield I remind all members that referring to ‘you’ is referring to the Chair, and I ask that we stay within order.
David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (13:55): Let me be clear when it comes to the removal of level crossings. In fact let me be crystal clear that the opposition support the removal of level crossings, unlike the mistruths that the government might want to tell in terms of what we believe about level crossings being removed. Also the opposition absolutely support the vital infrastructure that is needed in Victoria. It is one thing supporting infrastructure and it is one thing supporting removing level crossings, but it is another thing when you waste taxpayers money and you cannot manage major projects.
Now, the Deputy Premier, who is responsible for transport infrastructure, should be called the minister for budget blowouts, because we have seen under the Deputy Premier’s watch blowout after blowout after blowout. We have just heard a diatribe from the Deputy Premier about how fantastic the government is. They are patting themselves on the back when it comes to level crossing removals. Let me remind the Deputy Premier and the government that a Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report of 2017 says there is a $3.3 billion blowout when it comes to level crossing removals – $3.3 billion – with $5 billion promised and an $8.3 billion cost. This is not unusual for the Deputy Premier.
The level crossing removals are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the minister for budget blowouts, the Deputy Premier, and waste and mismanagement of taxpayers money. We just see it time and time again. The Commonwealth Games – the Deputy Premier was responsible for that. How is that going? There is more money wasted and there are cancelled contracts, and it will be billions of dollars to be able to pay for that. This is a government that cannot manage money, this is a government that wastes taxpayers money and this is a government that, with the Deputy Premier responsible for major projects, is leading the pack when it comes to wasting taxpayers money. This is at a vital time when Victorians are doing it tough. It is at a vital time when we see the cost of living going through the roof and when it comes to Victorians each and every day struggling.
Absolutely, when it comes to level crossings, we support those. But it is one thing to be removing them and it is another thing to be wasting taxpayers money when it comes to doing that. Glen Huntly level crossing – a fantastic advocacy project which, it was said, should have been done many years ago – is one of the 50 most dangerous level crossings, and between the time of 2010 and 2014 we advocated for its removal. Where was the government? MIA. Where was the Deputy Premier? MIA. Why? Because the Deputy Premier put politics over people and removed level crossings where the votes counted and not where the need was, unfortunately, and that has been the concern here.
This government puts politics before people, this government wastes taxpayers money and this government has a Deputy Premier that should also have the title – because the Deputy Premier has lost the title of the minister for Commonwealth Games – of minister for budget blowouts because that is what we have seen. Whether it be the Commonwealth Games; the North East Link, $13 billion; the West Gate Tunnel, $4.7 billion; the Metro Tunnel, $3.6 billion; or the Suburban Rail Loop, $125 billion, these are budget blowouts. They have all been well and truly mismanaged by the Deputy Premier. The Deputy Premier can stand up today and talk very fondly of how her government has removed level crossings – but at what cost?
Business interrupted under sessional orders.