Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Suburban Rail Loop

Dr BACH (Eastern Metropolitan) (19:37): (2045) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and it concerns the government’s recent approval of the environment effects statement of the so-called Suburban Rail Loop. The action I seek is for the minister to explain exactly how much more Victorian taxpayers can expect to fork out to manage toxic soil, this time in Cheltenham. Just last week we were able to access for the first time the report from the inquiry and advisory committee that was set up by the planning department to assess potential environmental impacts during the construction of the project and its aftermath. This report was then, unsurprisingly, ticked off by the Minister for Environment and Climate Action. One element of many elements in this report that alarmed me was the precarious approach that the government will have to take to the management of soil, particularly in Cheltenham.

The site of the proposed Cheltenham station on Sir William Fry Reserve is a former gasworks site. The local member for Sandringham, Brad Rowswell, has been informing me for some time that there is a significant risk to the government’s proposed plan due to the site’s industrial heritage. Well, Mr Rowswell was right. The committee’s report found that soil at the site contained an alarming amount of toxic chemicals hazardous to human health. These include, among other things, cyanide. The presence of cyanide in the dirt in the middle of a densely populated urban area alarms me, not least due to its proximity to the bustling Southland shopping centre as well as numerous schools and childcare centres. This report outlined a series of recommendations that could be taken up in an effort to potentially mitigate the catastrophic risks of unearthing this toxic soil, but I do not mind telling you, President, I am yet to be convinced. You will have to forgive me, as will the minister, for not quite being able to trust this government on the management of toxic soil.

Failure on the West Gate Tunnel Project saw costs blow out by billions and billions of dollars, but now we are expected to believe that the same government who so grossly mishandled soil management in Yarraville will somehow succeed in doing the same in another densely populated residential area. Albert Einstein famously said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result. I dare say he was onto something. This huge risk naturally begs the question why the government is about to spend $35 billion of Victorian taxpayers money that it does not have digging up toxic soil to build a railway line from Cheltenham to Box Hill. I am unconvinced, as are many experts who I have spoken to over recent days, by the mitigation measures. So the action, again, that I seek from the minister is an explanation as to exactly how much Victorian taxpayers will be forking out for this this time.