Thursday, 20 February 2025

Suburban Rail Loop

Matt FREGON (Ashwood) (17:32): (1030) I think we all remember that part of that folklore movie that is in all our hearts when Darryl Kerrigan looked at his family and with great pride said, ‘Dale dug a hole.’ Not too dissimilar to that, in Burwood right now we have a hole that is getting bigger at the Burwood SRL East station. So my adjournment this evening is to ask the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL), Ms Shing in the other place, to come down and have a look at the tunnel boring shaft, which is 50 per cent completed, and work that is underway.

As we all know, the SRL is not just a train project; it is about the future of our city. The SRL East is centred around the second-biggest employment sector in our state outside the CBD. It connects Monash Uni, where thousands and thousands of people come every day, to trains. It connects Deakin Uni, my old alma mater, to trains. It connects that employment sector, as I said. It also will allow us to put housing where we need to put housing, because the next generation are looking at the price of housing and we have to do more, and we are doing more. On top of that, it is still a train project and it will take cars off the roads. So maybe, just maybe, when this is finished in 2035, if Mr Kerrigan was still hanging around, he would not have to move the Cortina to get to the Camira to get to the Torana to get to the Commodore.