Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Ministers statements: train and tram manufacture

Gabrielle WILLIAMS (Dandenong – Minister for Government Services, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Public and Active Transport) (14:12): On this side of the house we like to invest in locally made rolling stock and local jobs. Our record-breaking investment in new trains and trams for Victorians speaks for itself. Just last week I had the privilege of joining workers at the Alstom factory in Dandenong to celebrate its 70 years of rolling stock manufacturing at that site. The Dandenong factory, along of course with the Ballarat workshops, is at the heart of Victoria’s local train and tram manufacturing program. Dandenong’s legacy stretches from the old Harris cars to the Comeng fleet and the A-, B-, E- and Z-class trams, not to mention the VLocity and the X’trapolis 2.0 trains, which are being shared with the Ballarat workshop.

Our government’s $9 billion pipeline of investment in rolling stock since 2014 has supported more than 10,000 local jobs, and just this month the workers at Dandenong have started major works on 100 new next-generation G-class trams – low floor, high capacity and with 65 per cent local content. They have also just finished work on the newest VLocity train for our regional network, the 65th VLocity we have delivered since coming to government, boosting reliability and accessibility for our V/Line passengers.

But I am reliably informed that there was a time in the 70-year history of the Alstom Dandenong site when production lines stopped. It was the late 1990s; it was a Jeff Kennett Liberal government. And the fact is that no orders means no jobs. They did not learn, because under the Baillieu–Napthine governments orders again started to dry up – the same lack of certainty for workers and the supply chain. It is no surprise that the member for Bulleen does not understand what a dedicated train fleet is. He cannot find an order book either.