Tuesday, 1 April 2025

Ministers statements: Suburban Rail Loop

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:44): I rise to update the house on how the Suburban Rail Loop will improve the lives of millions of Victorians by connecting them to health care. This side of the house knows –

Matthew Guy interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Bulleen, I know you like to have the last word. That is your last word. You can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Bulleen withdrew from chamber.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: On this side of the house, we know that Victorians should not be forced to choose between world-class health care and the transport infrastructure and housing that they need. We must deliver both. We are about to open the Metro rail tunnel. This has been made entirely possible by this Labor government, and it has been entirely funded by this Labor government. It is going to connect both patients and our hardworking healthcare workers directly to the Children’s, the Royal Women’s, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and of course Peter Mac. And we are getting on with delivering the SRL because it is going to play a really vital role in connecting more Victorians to Box Hill Hospital, the Monash Children’s Hospital, the soon to be redeveloped Monash Medical Centre and of course our $577 million state-of-the-art Victorian Heart Hospital. And, do you know what, there is more because that is only stage 1 of the Suburban Rail Loop.

History tells us that without Labor governments at the state or federal level Victorians will get done over every single time, and Victorians know this. That is why they should be alarmed – and I know they are – about who really calls the shots in the Victorian Liberal Party, because it is now abundantly clear that that Queenslander, otherwise known as the Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton, is the one making the policy decisions and the budget decisions on behalf of the leader –

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, ministers statements are an opportunity for a minister to countenance policy decisions of the government, not to attack the opposition. I ask you to ask her to desist from doing so.

The SPEAKER: The minister will come back to her statement without attacking the opposition.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: The SRL will connect thousands and thousands, indeed millions, of Victorians to the health care that they need, and it will be dudded by that Leader of the Opposition.