Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Suburban Rail Loop

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (19:09): (1075) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, and the action that I seek is for the minister to join me and the Cheltenham, Pennydale and Highett communities to hear what local residents are actually saying about the Allan Labor government’s proposed Suburban Rail Loop project.

Earlier this year the minister said that the Labor government’s approach to the Suburban Rail Loop was based upon ‘priorities that communities have identified’. In late 2023 the government allowed local Cheltenham, Pennydale and Highett residents to provide feedback on the SRL Precincts: Discussion Paper. You might ask why they bothered, though, because it is not like Labor to ask the community before they announce a project or to announce exactly what a project looks like.

The 2023 surveys had 198 responses, which were never actually released publicly by the government despite being anonymised. We had to obtain them via freedom of information. I would like to quote a few responses from local residents – and I will make this available to Hansard afterwards.

“I think the whole idea is going to destroy Cheltenham.”

“The SRL plans as of today would break existing community spirit and the area would become a soulless, overdeveloped suburb that hinders quality of life for people living in suburban Melbourne.”

“… no-one seems to want it except the people planning it.”

“You want to grow the population in Cheltenham. But if you ask the people in Cheltenham what they want this is not it …”

“The fact that Highett will lose open space and have to house more residents than the infrastructure can handle is absurd.”

“This project should be cancelled – the state cannot afford it.”

‘… this document makes no mention of environmental spaces, despite all the evidence that access to green space improves human health. Also, it is dishonest – the discussion paper is just about making the area very high density, with no appropriate increase in support services …”

“I have lived in Cheltenham for 23 years and all I have seen with all the new apartments being built, is businesses being destroyed, a lot more crime, many empty new offices and commercial spaces.”

“It’s a smoke and mirrors response so the government can get away with ruining the precinct with a concrete jungle …”

“I live in Cheltenham and I don’t trust a Labor Government.”

I also do not trust the idea that this decade-old Labor government can get this project right. They have barely been promoted locally, and I would be shocked if more than a handful of people actually turn up to the consultations the government has promoted. That is why it is so critical for the minister to actually join me in the communities of Cheltenham, Pennydale and Highett to hear directly from residents about the impact of the SRL on our community.