Wednesday, 15 November 2023

Suburban Rail Loop

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (14:10): I am very pleased to move:

That this house notes:

(1) the International Monetary Fund’s advice for governments to appropriately manage their infrastructure pipelines to avoid interest rates rising further;

(2) the comments of the federal Labor Treasurer urging state governments to better coordinate major projects;

(3) the expert advice of economists and urban planners identifying the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) as the most appropriate project to be paused;

(4) that the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office found the SRL business case does not ‘support fully informed investment decisions’, contained ‘significant departures’ from department of transport guidelines and, when costed to these guidelines, could lose 49 cents for every dollar spent;

(5) that the Parliamentary Budget Office found the first two stages of the SRL could cost 2.5 times what the Premier the Honourable Jacinta Allan MP originally promised;

(6) that the Allan government has not submitted its costings and business case to Infrastructure Victoria, despite the Andrews government creating the body to advise on major projects;

(7) that there is a $9.6 billion shortfall in Commonwealth funding, with the federal Labor infrastructure minister confirming that no further funding will be guaranteed until the project goes through an independent evaluation;

(8) that the government should not sign multibillion-dollar contracts and allocate a generation’s worth of infrastructure funding in the face of a volatile economic climate;

and calls on the government not to sign any SRL contracts until it is independently assessed by Infrastructure Victoria and to pause the SRL to ensure that Victoria’s infrastructure pipeline remains stable.

I am pleased to rise on this motion concerning the Suburban Rail Loop. This motion is an important one for those that believe that this place should act in the public interest. I think it is a motion that everyone in this place should be able to get behind, as there are many reasons why it should be supported. But we first must take a step back and consider the background of the sorry story that is the Suburban Rail Loop.

This project was not recommended by Infrastructure Victoria. This project was not on Infrastructure Australia’s priority list, nor was it on the state government’s Plan Melbourne long-term infrastructure planning blueprint. You would probably not be surprised if I told you the Department of Transport and Planning were not consulted, because they were not. In fact no transport or rail plan publicly available in Victoria in 2017 or 2018 identified the need for an orbital rail loop in Melbourne. Instead of this idea coming from a reputable organisation and going through the proper processes, it was conducted in secret. It was concocted in secret before the last election and only four ministers knew about it, including the now Premier Jacinta Allan. Even board members of the government agency responsible for delivering this project did not know about it until it was announced. Senior public servants enlisted to give advice were legally gagged from sharing it with their bosses. Instead of going through the proper processes, the government paid PwC to work on its so-called strategic investment of the SRL. These consultants even worked in a secret office and were required to sign non-disclosure agreements barring them from discussing the project with anyone outside of the team, and no documents were able to leave the locked rooms.

As many in this place would be quite aware, PwC is not known to have the most ethical business practices. After the PwC tax scandal where it abused Australian government secrets to enrich its clients, we have seen many Labor members elsewhere and federally criticise PwC. I think some members opposite would perhaps share that sympathy and should maybe chat to their senior ministers, who in the past five years have spent about $80 million with PwC. Given PwC’s reputation and the business they receive from this government, including on the SRL, one might suspect this assessment they developed was not one of frank and fearless advice but one that gave the government the answer they were looking for. There is not a lot of evidence to suggest that this is not indeed the case. As the Auditor-General noted:

The early development of the SRL business case was atypical for the state’s largest ever transport infrastructure project because:

• no transport agencies were involved in the planning and development of the orbital metro line

…

• DPC, the agency that commissioned its development, has no record of its decision to do so, or of its review of the business case before it provided it to government in April 2018

• DTF was not involved in its development and did not provide any advice to the Treasurer when the business case was submitted to the Cabinet in April 2018.

When it comes to the business case’s content itself, it is a bit of a sorry story. The Auditor-General found:

• the high-level problems and benefits articulated in the SRL business case lacked necessary and sufficient supporting evidence

• a narrow set of options were considered and analysed both before and as part of the business case development

• the economic analysis does not cover the entire SRL program and lacks consistency with the guidance in key areas.

The Auditor-General noted that despite the business case identifying some problems with Melbourne’s transport network, these problems:

• are not supported with comprehensive evidence

• are not supported by detailed descriptions of their root causes or underlying drivers or how they may be impacted by uncertainty

• do not immediately point to the need for a transport-related intervention.

The Auditor-General also noted that:

• Infrastructure Victoria’s independent 30-year infrastructure strategy released in 2016 did not include or signal a need for an orbital rail line in Melbourne

• the VIP released in October 2017 did not include an orbital rail loop in Melbourne

• no transport or rail plan publicly available in Victoria in 2017 or 2018 identified the need …

for this loop. There are myriad issues with this business case, with this economic analysis. These include the use of a discounted rate of 4 per cent as opposed to DTF guidance of 7 per cent, which artificially inflates the benefits of the project compared with other benefits. It also includes wider economic benefits and urban consolidation benefits in the standard analysis when they are generally not included, making an unfair comparison with other projects. There are a number of issues with the business and investment case, which the Auditor-General raised. I would encourage members to read the Quality of Major Transport Infrastructure Project Business Cases report for themselves as there is much scope for this contribution.

Extraordinarily, the Auditor-General found that when the SRL economic appraisal was completed using information from the Suburban Rail Loop Authority at the standard discount rate of 7 per cent, the SRL had a benefit–cost ratio of just 0.51, meaning that for every dollar of taxpayer money spent the state and our society would be worse off by 49 cents. Remember when former Premier Daniel Andrews was banging on about the east–west link and was saying that because it was 84 cents for every dollar – even though it was actually $1.40 for every dollar – this was the reason the government needed to establish Infrastructure Victoria? They said:

The new independent body will –

ensure –

… Victoria’s immediate and long-term infrastructure needs are identified and prioritised based on objective, transparent analysis and evidence.

That is what they said in 2015. They said they were going to take the politics out of infrastructure. Instead they whispered to their mates at PwC, handed them a bag of cash and got them to come up with this ridiculous proposal that is going to take a hundred years to build and will stop any significant, economically valuable infrastructure opportunity from occurring in the next hundred years. Not only do they want to clog up all of their own infrastructure projects currently, which are all blowing out, they want to stop any government over the next hundred years from having their own infrastructure ambitions.

The Parliamentary Budget Office prior to the last election costed the first two stages at $125 billion – 2.5 times what the former Premier promised for the whole thing. In fact the PBO estimated that with 50 years of operations it would cost $200 billion of taxpayers money. It is not Labor’s money, it is the Victorian people’s money. Since then construction costs have increased, so this number will almost certainly be even higher now.

There are many other concerns around the SRL. Of course I think the most prominent, which all members should think very seriously about, is its effect on inflation and its effect on interest rates. The International Monetary Fund has called on state governments to manage their infrastructure pipelines at a more measured and coordinated pace, otherwise interest rates would have to be even higher, putting the burden of adjustment disproportionately on mortgage holders. We are in a cost-of-living crisis. Some of the constituents in my electorate, particularly in the outer north, are some of the most mortgage stressed in the state, and this will only make things worse, because we know the evidence of that.

Transport experts and economists have backed the IMF’s call to scale back the government’s record $30 billion a year of public infrastructure, which is competing for scarce labour and materials, and have nominated Victoria’s $125 billion Suburban Rail Loop as a prime candidate for the chopping block. Even the federal Labor Treasurer is urging state governments to better coordinate projects and has said that the state government must make tough decisions to prevent inflation rising.

The inflationary impacts of Labor’s spending have been known to the Allan and Andrews governments for over a year, with Treasurer Tim Pallas acknowledging in May 2022 that Victoria’s construction market was close to tapping out. Victoria already has more debt than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined. Independent analysis from the PBO said that Victoria’s state debt is set to rise 66  per cent to $400 billion over the next four years, more than any other state by a long way. And then we saw reports last week of maybe a last-ditch effort by the government to save this project, revealing it might be planning on pursuing a public–private partnership. This comes off the back of a $20 billion black hole that exists in the first stage, where there is a $9.6 billion shortfall in federal funding.

I do not think many of the members opposite are too happy with the federal member for Ballarat, Ms King, the infrastructure minister – I know Mr McCracken knows her very well – who has actually turned around and said to Jacinta Allan and her Labor government, ‘No, this is too much.’ It is too much and it is having an effect on inflation, which is having an effect on everyday Victorians. The federal government said they will not commit to further funding until there has been an independent assessment, rather than a Labor-rigged one.

It is not just that the Auditor-General, the IMF, the federal Labor Treasurer and the infrastructure minister have raised concerns with the SRL; indeed a wider range of experts have disagreed with it. Just on the Labor point, we saw on the weekend an article in the Age, which actually said:

Privately, a growing number of federal cabinet ministers are fed up with Victorian government’s obsession with the costly rail loop …

I find that quite interesting. They would rather get on and hopefully fund pieces of economic infrastructure that would add value to the state in a sequenced way that is not tying up all of our labour and resources and making it impossible to build homes around the state. Yesterday we saw the Premier in the other place, Jacinta Allan, asked whether any part of the Victorian government is investigating or considering pausing or cancelling the Suburban Rail Loop. Investigating pausing or cancelling the Suburban Rail Loop – that is the rumour. Members of the government’s backbench might not be aware, but that is the rumour. She was very careful to not confirm or deny this. I suspect, given the Premier’s form, when she finally cancels it – because she will, she absolutely will, and you all know that she will – she will say, ‘Well, actually, I was briefed on the cancellation the day after I spoke in Parliament.’ Given she said that yesterday, she is probably being briefed right now, just like Ms Shing was briefed on the Commonwealth Games the day after she was spruiking it in Parliament – eight days after the then Premier and his deputy were told about it. All these things seem to happen a day after they start spruiking it. I suggest members opposite be very careful in their wording or maybe find out from the Premier whether she has instigated an investigation and options for pausing or cancelling the Suburban Rail Loop. I suggest that very strongly.

But I want to touch on some of the experts that have spoken out against this. The Grattan Institute are usually to the left of Lenin, but they have criticised it. Marion Terrill, director of the cities program at the Grattan Institute, said:

The Suburban Rail Loop is a money sink. Time to bite the bullet and cancel it.

The institute has also said that political considerations have consistently outweighed public benefit.

Stephen Anthony, former chief economist for Industry Super Australia, said the SRL is ‘the worst infrastructure project of all time’. Michael Buxton, emeritus professor of environment and planning at RMIT, said the SRL will become ‘the greatest public transport infrastructure failure in Australia unless substantially altered’. And respected economist Chris Richardson has said:

I don’t think there’s been a credible analysis of the Suburban Rail Loop with economic benefits …

It has always been a political exercise, much more than it ever was one recommended by experts, and we are talking losses here. But it remains significant early days that even if some money is spent, it’s better to ditch now rather than later.

The best outcome for Australia –

not just Victoria –

is a graceful exit.

The figures we are talking about in relation to SRL are massive, they are huge. They are in the order of hundreds of billions of dollars. Figures of this magnitude may seem ethereal, but they are not entirely meaningless. Of course everyone wants improved infrastructure. The problem is that when Labor blows out major projects, when it rigs business cases, it is Victorians that pay the price for that. They pay in higher taxes, less services, the wrong infrastructure in the wrong places or, in this case, increased inflation. And we get the cancellation of other projects because the SRL is prioritised. Cancellation of the airport rail, cancellation of Geelong fast rail and cancellation of the Western Rail Plan, which would have meant people on the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines could stop having to ride V/Line trains when they live in established suburbs.

This is why the opposition urges the house to support this motion. I say to members of the crossbench: we want to see an independent analysis by Infrastructure Victoria. I know this is something the Greens have spoken about on several occasions, making sure our infrastructure is properly assessed. I will also say that it is an opportunity cost: SRL means clogging a generation’s worth of infrastructure projects, not just this government’s infrastructure projects but future governments’ infrastructure projects and priorities. I say to my friends on the crossbench: if you are pushing for any projects like public transport in the western suburbs or more buses – I am a big supporter, like the Greens are and I know Dr Ratnam is, of duplicating the Upfield line and connecting it to the Craigieburn line and electrifying the track to Wallan – but we will not be able to do those projects if we keep going with the Suburban Rail Loop. It is just not possible.

I heard Mr Puglielli the other day pushing for Doncaster rail. None of these things can be done if the SRL blocks other projects from the infrastructure pipeline for the next 80 to 100 years. That is the reality: it will block every other project any Victorian or representative would like to see done in this state. Not content with clogging up their own infrastructure pipeline, they want to clog up every government’s infrastructure pipeline for the next 100 years.

This is having a massive effect on the entire economy. The infrastructure pipeline, even at the moment, is having an effect on inflation. We know this through the IMF, we know this through the federal Labor government, who have said as such, and we need to think seriously before taking up a suggestion of a business case by your mates at PwC who have come up with this flawed business case that no-one thinks is credible. We have to seriously consider the value of this project.

So let us consider it. Let us ask for an independent assessment by Infrastructure Victoria. I think this is the least this house could do. We cannot saddle our future generations of Victorians with what is potentially the greatest boondoggle in our history. I commend this motion to the house.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:30): I rise to speak on Mr Mulholland’s motion 247:

That this house notes:

(1) the International Monetary Fund’s advice for governments to appropriately manage their infrastructure pipelines to avoid interest rates rising further;

(2) the comments of the federal Labor Treasurer urging state governments to better coordinate major projects;

(3) the expert advice of economists and urban planners identifying the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) as the most appropriate project to be paused –

by the way, I do not agree with this part of the motion in particular, but back to it –

(4) that the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office found the SRL business case does not ‘support fully informed investment decisions’, contained ‘significant departures’ from department of transport guidelines and, when costed to these guidelines, could lose 49 cents for every dollar spent;

(5) that the Parliamentary Budget Office found the first two stages of the SRL could cost 2.5 times what the Premier the Honourable Jacinta Allan MP originally promised;

(6) that the Allan government has not submitted its costings and business case to Infrastructure Victoria, despite the Andrews government creating the body to advise on major projects …

There are points (7) and (8) in the motion, but they are not worth noting.

The Suburban Rail Loop has been voted on twice. I remember the Liberals saying in the 2022 election it would be a referendum on the Suburban Rail Loop. A referendum it was: we won and won convincingly. Well done to the Premier in her former portfolio, and I am looking forward to working with the new Minister for Transport Infrastructure Minister Pearson in the other place on this, as it affects my community a lot. The Suburban Rail Loop is a long-term commitment which future generations will thank us for. It is a bold vision for the future. It will build the transport infrastructure necessary for our growing and prosperous state and facilitate the creation of smaller cities and hubs right across metro Melbourne.

When most of Melbourne’s rail network was built the concept it was based on was simple: you live in the suburbs and you take the train to the CBD for work, and then you go back at night. But Melbourne has moved on from that. The Suburban Rail Loop is at its heart rewiring our public transport network to orient how Melburnians move around the place. A significant portion of a Melburnian’s commute is not back and forth from the CBD anymore; it is orbital travelling, in a ring through and around the suburbs. As the city has grown, more and more jobs and other centres of economic activity are not based in the CBD or the burbs. The SRL is an acknowledgement of this and is an investment toward the inevitable future of when more Victorians take this orbital route for work and leisure, which would be left rather unserved with the existing hub-and-spoke model. It is taking the old model of the central business hub and the suburban branches and saying, ‘No, actually not everyone works in the city.’ We are seeing people move between the suburbs for work in the various economic hubs across the city, and right now to use the rail network you must go to the city and then back out. That journey is not economical or efficient.

To meet the needs of the 21st century we need to be mature and acknowledge that, and we need to be mature and acknowledge that doing nothing in the short term will cost us even more in the long term. We do not sit here and debate the costs and merits of the city loop, because not only was it necessary, it has also become an indispensable element of Public Transport Victoria and our city. We cannot imagine our system without it. There is not a city in the world without a comprehensive public transport system, and if we are to, as some projections say, hit the same population as London by the 2050s, we must have a modern, dynamic rail network – not a rail network fit for Melbourne in 1901.

Victorians have twice now endorsed this positive plan to help reorient the transit system around the suburbs, and this government is committed to seeing this happen. It is what people of Victoria want. They are calling out for it, and we are getting on with it and delivering our part. Victorians are sick of the commute – we all know this. It takes its toll. Do you know that up to 80 per cent of Melburnians will experience reduced travel times because of this project? By giving ordinary passengers this transport alternative, we can take more cars off the road – approximately 600,000 cars a day. This will in turn make more room for vans, trucks and the like to move more quickly through the streets and arterials to their destinations, also helping small business in the process. A journey from Cheltenham to Box Hill will take just 22 minutes with the SRL, connecting commuters along the eastern belt to Monash and Deakin universities as well as the major economic hubs they want to travel to. Right now you would have to drive through the congested peak-hour traffic or you would have to hop on a train from Cheltenham all the way to Richmond and then back out to Box Hill. That can take upwards of an hour, whereas the SRL will get you there in just about a third of the time.

But it has its benefits in the short term too – that is, jobs, and a lot of them. Construction is already underway on the eastern SRL, and that is expected to generate up to 8000 jobs throughout construction alone, with upwards of 24,000 over the life of the project from start to finish – and that does not even account for the opportunity it poses for businesses and suppliers in Victoria as work commences.

I said I would not mention parts (7) and (8) of the motion, but I think they are worth noting and refuting. Part (7) of the motion says:

… there is a $9.6 billion shortfall in Commonwealth funding, with the federal Labor infrastructure minister confirming that no further funding will be guaranteed until the project goes through an independent evaluation …

Well, the reality is that Victoria and the Commonwealth government have already committed $14 billion to the SRL East. That is more than enough to start the main works with tunnel-boring machines in the ground in 2026, and we need to get it done.

I said I would not discuss point (8) of the motion, which says:

… the government should not sign multibillion-dollar contracts and allocate a generation’s worth of infrastructure funding in the face of a volatile economic climate …

Come on, really? This has been voted on twice. There is a mandate, and it is absurd to suggest otherwise. There is a lot of noise, but we are getting on with the job. We have already appointed Suburban Connect as the preferred bidder for the first package of tunnelling works between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley – Cheltenham, in my community of Southern Metro, and Glen Waverley, just over the border from it.

I believe I have talked about Suburban Connect in this place before, but just a reminder that it is a consortium of global leaders in tunnelling, tunnelling being something my community of Southern Metro, in particular Chadstone, knows all about as the training centre to learn how to tunnel is there. This consortium includes CPB Contractors, Ghella and Acciona, with extensive experience in Victoria and Australia, including the Caulfield to Dandenong level crossing removals, the Sydney Metro and Brisbane’s Cross River Rail. This contract will formally be awarded by the end of the year. It is not long away at all. The tunnel-boring machines will start tunnelling by 2026, just in time for Victorians to vote again to support the Suburban Rail Loop.

Since mid last year we have already started works, and it has created its first local jobs, 800 of them. I am proud to say that more than 14 per cent of the hours will be worked by apprentices, trainees and cadets. Construction is underway in Box Hill, where a significant portion of early works across the new railway line will take place over the next three years.

To wrap up in the last minute of my contribution, the SRL East and SRL North will carry almost half a million passengers a day every day by 2056. Trains will run every 6 minutes in the peak and up to every 2 minutes if needed during maximum demand. It will put Melbourne, even more so, on the international map, making it easy for tourists to explore our city – all of it.

Communities support it; voters support it. Councils, unis and their students and residents overwhelmingly support the SRL. My daughter went to Monash Uni, and it is an important uni in Southern Metro, as Ms Crozier and Mr Davis would know. SRL East will deliver a train service to Monash for the first time. There has been talk of extending proper public transport to Monash Uni, Australia’s biggest university, for decades, and now we will. I will not be in the chamber, but in 2041, if I went from Monash to Box Hill I would save 33 minutes off my trip, and 47 minutes from Dandenong to Deakin Uni, 31 minutes from Ringwood back to Monash Uni and 25 minutes from Glen Eira to Deakin. That is something worth celebrating in my community of Southern Metro, and I am proud to support it.

Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (14:39): This is obviously a really important discussion to be had around transport infrastructure planning and resource allocation in this state. However, the Greens will not be supporting this particular motion today. There are many valid questions to ask about this government’s decision-making process for large infrastructure commitments and capital programs, not just in the transport space, and it seems that as the term progresses the need for transparency of both government decision-making and governance of these large investments of public funds only grows. We also need to ask questions about the comparative benefit delivered by competing priorities for transport funding, including large road projects like the North East Link versus the share spent on public and active transport and transport emissions reduction. These are the types of questions that would help determine whether the actions called for in the last paragraph of Mr Mulholland’s motion – pausing the SRL or refraining from signing contracts – are the right course of action.

If we have a finite amount of budget for transport infrastructure, where and how should that be spent? What is the best return on investment across all the options, and what is going to deliver the best outcome for our community, including by lowering the skyrocketing emissions from transport and the air pollution associated with it? We do return to a perennial shortcoming in our state. The Transport Integration Act 2010 requires the department of transport to prepare and periodically revise the transport plan for Victoria. The problem is that 13 years later Victoria still does not have an integrated transport plan and the minister and the department seem content to flout their legislative obligations to provide one.

The Auditor-General’s August 2021 report into integrated transport planning concluded that the Department of Transport’s:

… assertion that its 40 separate plans and strategies presently meet the Act’s integrated transport plan requirements does not withstand scrutiny.

The absence of a transport plan as required by the Act, during a decade of unprecedented investment in transport infrastructure, creates risks of missed opportunities to sequence and optimise the benefits of these investments to best meet Victoria’s transport needs.

Our public transport system needs to be ready to accept millions of additional passengers just in the next decade as the city grows and becomes less car dependent and we respond to the climate emergency. Now, that demands action on all scales, from big city-shaping infrastructure to more nimble and easy-to-roll-out measures like local reform of bus networks. Every opinion poll that puts the options head to head has found that a majority of Australians prefer that public transport improvement have priority over new roads. Our government needs to listen and start ensuring that every Victorian has a genuine option of reliable, frequent, fast and accessible public transport, including by prioritising more frequent services on existing lines – and that would be more affordable if we stopped spending billions on new motorways.

With regard to the Suburban Rail Loop, as the PTUA – Public Transport Users Association – outlined so clearly, the size of the spend really underscores the urgent need for a coherent community-led transport plan, but we still do not have one here in our state. Do we accept permanent and irreversible environmental damage, the induced demand, car dependency, congestion and pollution that big roads cause – or do we embrace a life in a city that takes environmentally friendly alternatives seriously and funds them accordingly? Having an integrated transport plan for the state would help us all see where our future should be and help us determine which are the appropriate options to back as we go forward.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:43): I would like to congratulate my colleague Mr Evan Mulholland on this wonderful motion. It gives us an opportunity to address some very, very important issues that the Suburban Rail Loop actually raises. I think many of these have been clearly outlined by Mr Mulholland, particularly looking at the financial issues and the lack of a feasibility study. In fact even the lack of a genuine need for this, in terms of actually doing the research that is required to outlay such large amounts of money and to tie up the taxes of hardworking Victorians for many years to come, is one of the major issues with the SRL.

It has been well outlined in here that the Parliamentary Budget Office found that the first two stages of the SRL could cost 2½ times what this Premier the Honourable Jacinta Allan originally promised. Now, 2½ times is not something to be sniffed at when we are talking about billions of dollars. In fact knowing full well that the Allan government has not submitted its costings and business case to Infrastructure Victoria is of course another genuine concern. Knowing that we have got a $9.6 billion shortfall in funding and no guarantee of further funding coming from the Commonwealth is another factor that we need to consider.

I really like the way these matters have been outlined in this motion. When I look at it, knowing full well that the Suburban Rail Loop is going to impact people in my electorate, I have a number of questions that I am very concerned about. Again, these have been outlined in this motion. We know full well that the Suburban Rail Loop is going to drive up our interest rates, and this is a genuine concern at a time when we have an economy that is falling apart in Victoria under this Labor government. I mean, if this government is spending all this money on infrastructure, the only thing that can happen is for inflation to go up and for interest rates to go up. It is going to drive that. It is a white elephant.

The Suburban Rail Loop is going to mean that with so many people working on these projects they are not going to be out there building homes, because quite frankly most of the builders cannot afford to pay what the people on the SRL are being paid. They cannot afford those wages, and that is why we have a genuine slowing down in the number of homes that are being built. If you cannot afford to pay the workers the sort of fees that the government is able to pay, it just does not make it a viable option for other people to implement. So now we have this state grinding to a halt as it panders to the needs of the unions that it likes to have back it up. It is not that having a union is a problem. It is when you are paying people exorbitant amounts of money and dragging it out so that it is impacting the budget and the hardworking wages that people pay in taxes and they cannot afford it. They are barely feeding their families. Meanwhile we are overpaying in other areas, and that is what this SRL is going to do.

This project never went through a proper cost analysis, and I know that many of my colleagues will have raised this. In fact even reputable organisations like the Grattan Institute say that this should not proceed. At the very best it should be delayed, or let us just scrap it. I mean, if you do not want to have money being wasted, then do not build the SRL for at least the next four years. Defer it – that is what the Grattan institute says. And you know what I say to this government? I say fix your financial problems in this state. Instead, it wants to use our taxes to break the Victorian system and the economy here by overpaying and making it so difficult to provide something that nobody asked for and that there was no genuine cost analysis for.

Also – and this is a real concern – this is all about building, eventually, high-rise apartments around a loop so that we can get rid of our democracy, because we want to eliminate the opportunity to have seats that are anything but dependent on a Labor government. Labor thinks this is going to cement its position in generations to come, but by doing this they will not be giving the working-class people that they say they represent anything. They will be giving them the scraps, because all the money is going on the SRL. They are just going to spend all the money on the SRL and there is not going to be enough money for hardworking Victorians. In fact all the working-class people who are crying out for this help – well, many – are not going to be benefiting because the money is going on the SRL. We are going to stall the whole of the economy for this particular situation, for this particular project.

Rents are going to increase beyond people’s income in almost every capital city in Australia, and we know that we are already seeing that here in Victoria. Victoria’s debt is $116 billion and heading towards 25 per cent of the GDP. That is a ratio we simply cannot afford. When you have gone and cancelled the Commonwealth Games and delayed the Melbourne Airport rail and the Geelong fast rail indefinitely, maybe you should actually think about this particular project, because their combined cost of $24 billion is nowhere near as expensive as even the first stage of the SRL, this Suburban Rail Loop. That is not me talking, that is the Grattan Institute.

If we look at the annual report tabled in Parliament last week, it shows that $126.7 million was spent from December 2021 to 30 June 2023, with the body’s key achievement being the use of a remote-controlled microtunnelling machine to lay a new 630-metre sewer pipe in Clayton as well as setting up a worksite. Seriously! A total of $84.8 million was spent in the 2023 financial year, including $42 million on wages for 538 full-time staff – $42 million on wages for 538 full-time staff. Hello? That is a lot of money. This has included 68 executives who pocketed more than $220,000, two of whom earned more than half a million dollars. The Suburban Rail Loop Authority spent $41.9 million over the period from 1 December 2021 to 30 June 2022, including $16.7 million on wages for 348 staff. Do you want those figures again, just in case? $16.7 million on 348 staff, and you wonder why people are being taxed. Not only are people being taxed, this Labor government is back-taxing people five to 10 years on things. They simply cannot afford it. And why? So we can keep an SRL project going that nobody has done proper costings on. Nobody asked for it, nobody particularly wants it and we do not need it at this time when we are a state that is going down the toilet. Financially we are going down the toilet. If we were not, why would you keep bunging on more and more taxes? We are up to 53 new or increased taxes in this state under this government. This Labor government is absolutely taxing Victorians, and we are going down the toilet.

David Southwick last week mentioned the SRL, the Suburban Rail Loop. This is what he said to Minister Danny Pearson:

At a time when Victorians are doing it tough, how is paying over $126 million to move some pipes and set up a worksite value for money?

I would like to ask the same question in this house: how is it value for money? The answer is: it is not value for money. It is not value for money. This is not good for Victoria. We do not need it. It is a waste of money. When we have 500,000 migrants moving in, we need to be looking at ways that we can actually build our economy and build the new resources and talents that are coming into this state, and this is not doing it. This is job for mates.

The best way to thread the needle –

as said by Mr Richardson in the Australian Financial Review –

is to pull back on where our infrastructure is dumbest.

(Time expired)

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (14:53): I am delighted to get up here and talk about the Suburban Rail Loop – absolutely delighted. I have read the motion, and frankly I am not a fan. It is a feeble attempt to undermine the transformative work of the Allan Labor government that is happening right here in our state to transform the way Victorians move around. The SRL is one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by any government of any time, and we are committed to getting on with it and getting the Suburban Rail Loop done. This project will deliver 8000 construction jobs and 24,000 jobs throughout the economy. What a fantastic number that is. Projects like the SRL keep the bills paid and the lights on and put food on the table for thousands of Victorians. The Allan Labor government creates jobs, unlike those opposite, who would see the thousands of jobs we are making gone – just simply gone – including those people that are already working on this project each and every day.

I have heard complaints from those opposite about workers being paid too much and whatnot. I will go to disputing some of those facts as they have come across us. But I will say that I am sure some members of this place would be simply delighted to hear that this project will take more than 600,000 ‍daily car trips off our roads, slashing congestion across the entire transport network. What an extraordinary and incredible thing, slashing travel times to and from key cross-suburb destinations, including our universities, our hospitals and key employment centres. It will deliver $58.7 billion – that is an incredible number, let me repeat that: $58.7 billion – in economic, social and environmental benefit to the state. This is incredible. It will have a positive – what are we calling this? – benefit–cost ratio of between $1.1 and $1.7 for every dollar spent. To me, that sounds like a very, very good thing.

I understand that early works are absolutely underway on the SRL East between Cheltenham and Box Hill, and the Commonwealth government is onboard with their initial contribution of $2.2 billion. How good it is to have friends in Canberra that believe in infrastructure investment and remember where Victoria is on the map. How good is that? I also want to remind members of this chamber that the Victorian people have in fact endorsed the Suburban Rail Loop not once but twice, including as recently as around this time last year.

The development we have already seen in this project has been just tremendous. Earlier this year we had exciting news with the appointment of Suburban Connect as the preferred bidder for the first package of tunnelling works between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley. Suburban Connect is a consortium of global leaders in tunnelling, with extensive experience in Victoria and Australia, including on the Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project. Gosh, I could talk about that for quite some time. They have also been involved in the Sydney Metro and Brisbane’s Cross River Rail. There you go. The contract will be formally awarded by the end of the year, with the tunnel-boring machines to start tunnelling in 2026. Won’t that be an exciting sight! I know that many members of this side will be celebrating the beginning of tunnelling works in 2026.

However, there is a mass of construction work that has already been undertaken since June last year. The first stage of works is creating up to 800 local jobs – just an incredible number. More than 14 per cent of these hours are being worked by apprentices, trainees and cadets, and I know members of this side love to see opportunities for trainees and cadets supported so ably by free TAFE. It just looks like those on this side absolutely are entirely determined to continue to support the next generation of young talent through great initiatives like free TAFE and guaranteed numbers of hours on major projects for apprentices and cadets. What a good thing.

Box Hill is busy with construction already underway. A significant portion of early works on that new railway line will take place over the next three years. It is a massive construction blitz. My gosh, it is busy over there, with works also underway in Burwood and Heatherton, starting soon in Monash and returning to Glen Waverley and Clayton later this year. My gosh, it is all happening over that side of town. While efforts are made to minimise disruption to the community and local traders, at times disruption is unavoidable for the safe delivery of construction works. A big thankyou to all those folks that pass our construction workers on the road and go slow. I will remind you all to go slow around construction works for the safety of the workers. We are continuing to work with local traders and to support them with vouchers and discount programs. There are posters, there is street signage, there are hoardings and there are vouchers that have all been around to support these works. Thank you again to the community for all their patience at this time. This government and all its projects will always be in touch with the community and ensure a streamlined delivery.

One of the very exciting bits about the SRL is the precincts – that is, the areas around the new SRL stations from Cheltenham to Melbourne Airport. They will be home to about 550,000 jobs by 2056, and it is not that long away – about the same number of jobs as there are right now in Melbourne’s central business district. 165,000 jobs will be in those areas simply because of the Suburban Rail Loop helping create more jobs close to where people live, all within a short walk from a station – bringing communities closer, giving them access to services, infrastructure and amenities. This work is vital for our state, it is vital to keep our suburbs going and vital for jobs – jobs that will be all over Melbourne suburbs.

Up to 24,000 of these jobs will be supported across the economy during construction of SRL East and North. Residents of the Northern Metropolitan Region will be very happy to have access to these jobs ‍– jobs that the Allan Labor government is making. This government is providing so much for the mighty northern suburbs as it always has. We are listening to local communities, as is absolutely at our heart, as is the delivery of the SRL, and I will remind members here that the Suburban Rail Loop Authority (SRLA) has been speaking with and listening to the community and stakeholders since 2019 – that is right, since 2019. We will continue to work closely with them every step of the way as they oversee the delivery of SRL East and plans for the future of the areas around these new stations. I can only imagine how exciting that is going to be.

I must say the SRLA has regularly written to and spoken with affected landowners and tenants along the SRL East project corridor, updating them on project progress and what it means for them and their properties. Thank you to all those who have regularly met. Along with local councils there have been key institutions, peak bodies and advocacy groups all meeting regularly, as I understand, with the SRL East crew. They have answered over 3800 enquiries from the community via phone call and email, and that is not all. Since the establishment of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority they have spoken to 17,000 community members at pop-up and drop-in information centres, most recently at community listening posts, to support the engagement of these precincts.

As I said, the SRLA, through the SRL precincts and their discussion paper, held more than 785 ‍meetings with key stakeholders – just incredible – and answered more than 3800 enquiries from the community via phone and by email. How good it is to see that they are very much responsive to the needs of the community. They have distributed thousands and thousands of works notifications to support site investigations and construction, and how exciting is that. The truth is that community is at the very heart of this state and the community will be consulted through every stage.

Ingrid Stitt: On a point of order, Acting President, I am really sorry but I cannot hear Ms Watt, and she is the closest person to me other than my friend Ms Ermacora. Can we please come to some order, Acting President?

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Yes. Ms Watt, continue please.

Sheena WATT: I only have some short remarks to go, and with that I will say that the SRL is the biggest public transport project in Australia’s history. Granted it will have its challenges, there is no doubt about it, as all things like this will do, but we know that those opposite will continue to use these challenges as an opportunity to continue their attacks on the project, on the jobs that it will create and on the Victoria that we must see in the future as we continue to grow. I would implore those opposite to curtail their messages of negativity on a project which will see the delivery of a project that Victorians have voted for not once but twice. Let me just say the Allan Labor government have the best track record of delivering infrastructure in this state and we are doing exactly what Victorians have voted for us to do, not once but twice. We are delivering the Suburban Rail Loop.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (15:03): I rise to speak to Mr Mulholland’s motion, which is a very important motion. I have just been listening to the member’s contribution – who seriously is in la-la land with comments that obviously came out of talking points from somebody’s office – in relation to what is being said about this project. This motion is incredibly important because it is about our state – about the rising debt that you and your government are putting not only the current generation but future generations into. It is not just us that says, ‘Have a look at what you are spending, look at what you are doing and pause.’ In Mr Mulholland’s motion the first point says:

the International Monetary Fund’s advice for governments to appropriately manage their infrastructure pipelines to avoid interest rates rising further

We have got a cost-of-living crisis in this state and in this country. In this state these sorts of projects, these vanity projects that members opposite are speaking about and that the Premier refuses to acknowledge are out of control, do not understand the economics of what they are doing. As a result we have got a rising inflation rate and we have got cost-of-living pressures, where basic things cannot be afforded.

You have not brought down energy prices; your government is driving up energy prices. There are so many issues that Victorians are facing because of the gross mismanagement of projects and the wastage of taxpayers money. Thirty billion dollars is an extraordinary amount of money, and those opposite just do not care. They seem to have no regard for taxpayer money. It is the mums and dads who are working hard to pay their taxes, which you continue to blow.

This project at this point in time should be paused, and that is what we are saying. We are calling on the government not to sign any contracts until this project is independently assessed by Infrastructure Victoria, a body that this government set up, and to pause the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) to ensure that Victoria’s infrastructure pipeline remains stable. This is responsible. What the government is doing is completely the opposite – completely irresponsible. Even your federal colleagues, as Mr Mulholland pointed out, are absolutely fed up with what you are doing because you are not being responsible in the projects that you are pushing forward.

As we know, this project is actually the most secretive, unscrutinised project in Victoria’s history, and this is particularly important – the most secretive, unscrutinised project. It is so big, but it does not have any scrutiny. It was originally codenamed Operation Halo, and board members of the government’s own agency responsible for its delivery knew nothing about it until it was announced. Senior public servants enlisted to give advice were legally gagged from sharing it with their bosses, and Labor MPs and ministers were kept in the dark except for the gang of five: the Treasurer Tim Pallas; now gone James Merlino; now gone Gavin Jennings, the Mr Fix-It; the now Premier Jacinta Allan; and the pull-the-pin Premier Daniel Andrews. That gang of five, who were responsible for all of this mess – well, there are only two left, the Treasurer and the Premier, and they need to do the right thing, because they have had their paws stuck right in the secrecy and have been up to their necks in it from the get-go.

As has been stated I am sure, Infrastructure Victoria’s independent 30-year infrastructure strategy, which was released in 2016, did not include or signal a need for an orbital rail line in Melbourne, which is this vanity project of the government. What is also so alarming about this project is that the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office has said that the business case does not support fully formed investment decisions, that it could lose up to 49 cents for every dollar spent and that VAGO identifies that there are problems that will flow on from this project. Now, I think everybody should be very alarmed at that, but they should be more alarmed that the Parliamentary Budget Office prior to the last election costed the first two stages of the SRL alone at $125 billion – 2½ times what was promised for the whole thing.

We have got this Premier in charge now who has botched every single project she has touched. They have blown out, and as a result we are now taxing doctors, for God’s sake. We are taxing our health system because of the Premier’s mismanagement and the botched projects and the budget blowouts. The state is so broke, they want to go ahead with this project and we are applying a health tax on the very people that need to help Victorians and care for Victorians. The government is trying to plug the haemorrhaging bottom line, and they are going after GPs and other allied health professionals. How daft is that. That is going to put more pressure on the public health system, it is going to put more pressure on already sick Victorians and it is going to put more pressure on those caring doctors and their teams that look after sick Victorians and their families.

I have called on the government to scrap the health tax. I listened to the minister’s answer in question time today, and all she did was deflect and blame others – no responsibility for a decision made by this government about applying a health tax that is going to close clinics. It is going to end bulk-billing. It is going to drive up costs for patients at a time when they cannot afford it. We have got a cost-of-living crisis, as I have said, and pressures are on households, pressures are on every Victorian. It is going to drive patients into already struggling emergency departments. That is the impact this health tax is going to have, and that is not me saying it; that is the AMA, that is the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, that is the GP Alliance – as Dr Bach says, a bunch of doctors are saying it. They are saying it, and I am hearing from them. I just wish the minister would get out of her ivory tower, go and speak to these GPs out in rural and regional Victoria and understand the enormous pressures that they are under. She is meant to be representing a seat in regional Victoria. Well, she needs to get out and speak to these GPs like I am, and I can tell you now they are not happy with this health tax. They know what it will do. They know that it is going to close clinics, drive up costs and put patients who are already struggling with their health needs in a more dire situation.

This motion goes to the suburban rail link. This orbital rail line project, which nobody even identified as a need, needs to be paused, and we seriously need to look at these contracts until they are independently assessed. This motion is a commonsense motion that is in the interests of all Victorians. Taxpayers money is not Monopoly money. This is a serious issue that we are talking about. It is hundreds of billions of dollars at the end of the day that we are talking about, and you keep rolling off these ‘It’s going to do this, that and the other thing.’ Well, you have not delivered a project on time. They have all blown out. Go and ask anyone in the western suburbs. Mr Luu will tell you. These are big promises. But the whole thing has blown out, and Victorians are paying for it, as I said.

Those members opposite say that Victorians voted for this. They sure did not vote for a government that are absolutely lying through their teeth, and we have seen that with the Commonwealth Games debacle. They promised Victorians they were going to deliver them, and it has cost us at the very least $600 million, and rising, to cancel the games. It has ruined our reputation internationally. And there are all of those communities that have been incredibly let down, because this government actually lied to them when they went to the 2022 election. So do not lecture us on this side about what the Victorian public voted for. They did not vote for a white elephant, and they did not vote for a health tax that is going to close down GP clinics, raise patient costs and force more patients into already busy emergency departments.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:13): Tempted as I am to directly respond to some of the comments made by Ms Crozier, I will start instead by quoting from one of our fair newspapers in this city, the Age, an article which says:

The Victorian Government’s plan for an underground railway has been attacked in a Melbourne University report which warns that to go ahead at present would be a serious mistake.

It continues with a quote:

“Many of the arguments put forward to support the construction of the underground loop line are misleading or irrelevant,” it says. “The evidence is strong that to proceed with the underground at present would be a serious mistake.”

This report was published in the Age on 10 August 1968. The loop it refers to is the city loop that we now have today, one of the most important pieces of our rail network that countless Melburnians and countless Victorians rely on –

Members interjecting.

Michael GALEA: got you there – a vital piece of our city’s infrastructure that this city’s rail network could not today operate without, that had people in the 1960s saying, ‘No, no, no, we don’t need it. It’s costly. It’s a mistake.’ ‘It’s a white elephant,’ I think she said – outrageous. I am sure that just as this article 55 years on is as ridiculous as it is – with the benefit of hindsight we can say that article is an utter farce – in 50 to 55 years time maybe people with more esteemed minds than ours will be sitting in this chamber commenting on articles and contributions made by members opposite.

Tom McIntosh: How will you guys be remembered? David Davis will still be here.

Michael GALEA: It is possible, Mr McIntosh. Yes, some members may still be here. I am sure even for him that would be quite an achievement. In 50 years time I am sure there will be people waving around articles and waving around Hansard from this year saying, ‘Look at those fools. They were speaking against this. What an important part of our city this already is. Can you imagine the city without the Suburban Rail Loop?’ – just as we cannot imagine our city without the city loop that we have today. Once again we see this sort of backwards thinking from the opposition. Frankly – and I will pick up one of Ms Crozier’s points here – let alone not being prepared to look into the future, they are not even prepared to look to the next election. Their strategy, it seems, for winning back the seats of Box Hill and Glen Waverley is, ‘You’ve got this big transport project coming. We’re going to take it away from you. That’s how we’re going to win back our old heartland.’ That is an incredible strategy, and I am sure if they keep pursuing this line of argument they will say goodbye to those seats probably for a much longer time than they had first hoped.

If we are going to start bringing all sorts of other arguments into this debate – I mean, it is your motion and you cannot even stay relevant to it yourself. You are talking about the Commonwealth Games, you are talking about health and you are talking about anything but the Suburban Rail Loop, because deep down I am sure you know this is a very good project that the voters actually want. I know you cannot bring yourselves to admit that publicly, but I think deep down you know. But let us talk about health and how wonderful it is to have a member for Glen Waverley who believes in science, who will get the jab. Lord knows what is going to happen over there if you get your way in that seat next time, if you are going to have another anti-vaxxer coming into the place who is going to refuse to attend Parliament because he refuses to get a vaccine that is widely accepted by scientists and by the health fraternity to be safe. That just shows the sorts of ridiculous antics over there that they like to inflict upon this place. Granted, perhaps not as ridiculous as the disgraceful thing we saw yesterday by the member for Richmond in the other place. You are not quite down at that level yet. But really, what is your plan?

Speaking of the city loop, this is an integral part of our infrastructure today. What is going to be another integral part of our city’s rail network in just a few years time is the Melbourne Metro tunnel that has been built and delivered by the Andrews and now Allan Labor government – ahead of schedule, mind you. It was originally scheduled to open in 2026. They said it was never going to happen, just as they said the level crossing removals were never going to happen. That will be open before we know it, and it is going to be a fantastic addition to our rail network. What did those opposite do when they were in government? The plan did emerge in the later years of the Brumby government, but they mucked it up completely. They said, ‘Well, we’ll build it’, ‘No – no, we won’t’, ‘No, we’re actually going to do it, but we’re not going to put the Pakenham line straight through the city through to Cranbourne; we’re going to take the Frankston line and we’re going to send it halfway across the other side of the city to Fishermans Bend before it even gets to the city, and then we’re going to send it to Southern Cross, and then it can kind of go this way’ – an absolutely ridiculous looping zigzag which flies in the face of all respectable transport planning ideas about how you design a network.

It took the election of the Andrews Labor government to fix their mistake. Four wasted years. That Metro Tunnel could be open right now had it not been for the Baillieu–Napthine governments mucking around, delivering nothing, as was their wont, and actually making the project worse – that would have reduced the overall benefit from the project. It took the Andrews Labor government, as it was at the time, to come in and fix their mess once again and get the Metro Tunnel back on track. That is exactly what is going to happen when that tunnel opens in coming years. The Metro Tunnel, for my constituents in particular, will have a huge impact for those living in the south-east, improving their connectivity with the city and also places beyond, such as the universities district – including our good friends at Melbourne University, who were not so keen on the city loop itself back in the 1960s – through to the hospital precinct and of course to the western suburbs as well.

The next stage of that is the Suburban Rail Loop. Why is that so important? It is important for communities, and it will be important for communities right across Melbourne. It is particularly going to be important for my communities in the south-east, because if you are a uni student in Cranbourne and you want to get to Monash University or Deakin University, this will make it so much easier. It will make it possible for more students to study. If you are in Pakenham and you work in Glen Waverley or if you are in Frankston and you need to go to work in Clayton, this makes it possible, and it means that you do not have to rely on your car to do so.

Of course it is also going to promote transit-oriented development. We are not the leaders of this. There are many other wonderful examples of this around the world, notably our Canadian friends who have pioneered in that space in particular, as well as examples in Europe. There are opportunities for development and regeneration and regrowth in these areas, which is going to be so crucial. I am sure Mr Mulholland would be very excited. We have had many good debates in here about nimbyism. If Mr Mulholland wants to see continued development in our middle-ring suburbs, I actually agree with him on that point; it is a good thing. But people are still going to need to be able to get around, and this is going to be a central part, a backbone, of our rail network. People for generations have been saying all our rail lines are radial and that we need some sort of outer circle to come back. This is a government that actually delivers and does not just navel-gaze.

Members interjecting.

Michael GALEA: Lots of people have said it. Well, lots of people have said it to me.

A member: Who? Name one.

Michael GALEA: Many people. In my previous iterations as a public transport advocate, I have heard many, many people say this to me, both those with a vested interest and those without. It has been a common refrain. I am quite sure I have seen countless letters in good newspapers as well over the years. Now course we have got a government that has actually got a plan to deliver it – to bring it in – and once again we have an opposition who is saying, ‘No, no, no. We’re going to oppose. We’re going to oppose. We’re going to oppose.’ There are travel time savings as well.

There are so many trips that will be taken via the SRL that have not even been contemplated yet. But for those trips that still take place, as I have said, if you are a student in Cranbourne going to Deakin University or if you are on the Frankston line and you need to get Clayton – any of these sorts of options – as these centres in our middle ring build and grow and develop, as they should, that will be made easier by the SRL. In fact the travel time from Cheltenham to Clayton, just that alone, will be under 10 minutes. There was a wonderful video on YouTube. I do not get to watch YouTube much at all these days, but I did happen to see a terrific video by a Melbourne video maker by the name of Taitset, who made a good video about the Broadmeadows runaway train 20 years ago, in 2003. That was the train that made an unscheduled trip from Broadmeadows right into the front of another train at Southern Cross station in the record time of 11 minutes – a very, very troubling event. Fortunately there were no fatalities out of it, but it is a very good video that I can recommend members watch. The Suburban Rail Loop will take you from Cheltenham to Clayton safely, in a properly run train, in less time than that runaway train.

I could go on talking for many, many minutes more – many hours more in fact – about the transport projects that are going on in this state. They say, ‘You’re not going deliver it. It’s never going to happen.’ That is exactly what they said about level crossing removals. We have delivered more than we committed to originally. There are many, many good reasons. Once again we find a Liberal wanting to talk about great Labor projects, so I thank him for bringing this motion to the house.

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:23): It is really good to rise to make some comments on this important motion. The motion calls on the government not to sign any Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) contracts until it is independently assessed by Infrastructure Victoria. It has been noted in this debate that Infrastructure Victoria is an excellent creation of this government. Similarly, Infrastructure Australia was an excellent creation of Mr Albanese personally when he was the relevant minister under Kevin Rudd. In putting forward this motion, we are not being negative Nellies but, rather, we are asking the government to do what the government has previously said it would do.

When the government established Infrastructure Victoria, it said that the body would play a key role in recommending infrastructure projects and approving and analysing infrastructure projects. In fact I would recommend all members of the house look back at the debate on the relevant legislation some years ago, in 2017. The contributions of numerous Labor members are instructive. The contribution of Mr Pakula, a dear friend of Mr Galea, is particularly instructive. What Mr Pakula said is that were any future government not to seek independent assessment for a major project from Infrastructure Australia, that would be, in his exact words, ‘economic vandalism’.

Mr Galea talked about the Metro Tunnel, an excellent project. It has been botched from start to finish by this government and by Minister Allan and it is billions of dollars over budget, but it is an excellent project. There are numerous projects underway right now that, contrary to the comments of Mr Galea, have always experienced full-throated, bipartisan support from the Liberal Party. Certainly the Metro Tunnel is one of these. We have provided our support previously for airport rail, which weirdly in the middle of the election campaign was rebranded ‘SRL Airport’. Well, the branding has changed and now that has been cut.

But there are important points to make. I know there is some truth, being a member in Melbourne’s east and north-east, to Mr Galea’s assertion and the assertion of others opposite that the SRL is undoubtedly popular in some circles. But I am struggling to buy the argument from those opposite, who concede that not one expert body recommends this project. Infrastructure Victoria has never recommended it. Infrastructure Australia thinks it is a dog of a project. Marion Terrill, the country’s foremost transport expert, wrote in the Age newspaper the other day that this should be scrapped. The Rail Futures Institute – I could go on and on and on.

Through the period of the COVID pandemic we were lectured by those opposite time and time again that politicians should be powerless vessels of experts – that is what they said. Time and time again they came into this place and berated us on the basis that we had an opinion, and we were told time and time again it was not the role of politicians to have opinions about anything; we should simply listen to the experts and follow the science. Well, if we are not to be populists – and on transport policy those opposite are populists; many of the things they have put forward are popular. I dare say the SRL, in certain segments of the community, is very popular; I concede that. Hanging murderers in the public square is very popular. It does not necessarily make it good policy. You are not –

Sonja Terpstra: On a point of order, Acting President, I note that we are having a debate on the Suburban Rail Loop, and I do not think hanging murderers in a public square can be remotely relevant to the motion, so on relevance –

A member interjected.

Sonja Terpstra: Yes, it is a bit outside the scope of this motion, so I would ask Dr Bach to contain his comments to the motion, which is about the Suburban Rail Loop.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Yes, it has been a rather wideranging debate, but I will call Dr Bach back to the matter in hand.

Matthew BACH: Of course, Acting President. Because the government itself has previously repeatedly said that all major projects must be independently assessed by Infrastructure Victoria or Infrastructure Australia – Labor creations, excellent Labor creations – those opposite, lest they be entirely hypocrites, must vote in favour of this motion.

This motion specifically also talks about a Commonwealth contribution. Now, when I was shadowing Minister Allan in the period of the election campaign I repeatedly said that the federal Labor government would not pledge a single additional cent for the Suburban Rail Loop. She denied that. She denied that repeatedly, she denied that on live television with me, she denied it time and time again. And at the time of course you might remember this Labor government was waging a campaign against Mr Morrison and the Liberals – ‘miserable’ Morrison, they called him. They said, ‘It’s impossible to get money out of this Liberal government in Canberra. It’s like foreign aid; you’ve got to go with your begging bowl.’ That is what they said time and time again.

However, now Labor’s federal mates are saying exactly what the federal coalition did. In fact they have gone further: Labor’s federal mates are cutting infrastructure spending to Victoria. They are not going to spend a single cent on this project, and that is what I said at the time. Now, I said that because I was in close communication with key figures at Infrastructure Australia. If those opposite think this is a good project – they do not – but if they think it is a good project, other than politically, they should do a business case. There is no business case. Do a business case, send it to Infrastructure Australia and ask for an assessment. To do any less would be ‘economic vandalism’ – not my words, the words of Minister Martin Pakula. Labor set up Infrastructure Victoria. They set up Infrastructure Australia. I praised them at the time; I have always praised Labor government, state and federal, for setting up those bodies. If you are going to argue that when it comes to COVID and other policy areas you must listen to the experts but then on transport and infrastructure, when we are thinking about an expense of perhaps $200 billion that we do not have, that all that matters is whether it is popular – well, that is not feasible. It is not feasible for our state, because we find ourselves in the economic malaise that we do. It is not a legitimate form of argumentation, if we are being fair, to continually say we must listen to experts, but then, when it suits you, to engage in the most obvious, crass, populist politicking.

This is a straightforward motion. We are seeking that the Labor Party commit to doing what they have previously said they would always commit to doing – having an analysis of the project carried out by their dear friends at Infrastructure Australia. They set up Infrastructure Australia. Good on them for doing it. Infrastructure Australia is fabulous. So is Infrastructure Victoria. So if Labor is real about this, if those opposite actually think that the benefits they have been discussing in this debate will flow through to the Victorian community maybe in 2080, maybe in 100 years, 150 years – who knows – if they are genuine about that, what is to be feared from finally writing a business case and sending it through to one of these expert bodies that either they or their federal colleagues actually created? Lest they be entire hypocrites, they must vote for this straightforward and important motion.

Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:31): I rise to make a contribution on this motion about the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) in Mr Mulholland’s name, motion 247. I am sad because I have only got about 4 minutes on the clock and I will not be able to fully address all of the things that Dr Bach talked about, because I normally would enjoy the opportunity to completely debunk a lot of what was said over there. I heard Dr Bach just talking a little bit about the Commonwealth government in his contribution and saying things like there is a $9.6 billion shortfall in Commonwealth funding. I think this is one of the points in Mr Mulholland’s motion:

… the Federal Labor infrastructure minister confirming that no further funding will be guaranteed …

Well – bah-bow – not true. The Victorian and Commonwealth governments have already committed $14 billion to SRL East. That is more than enough to start main works and have tunnel-boring machines in the ground in 2026. Then the last point:

… the government should not sign multibillion-dollar contracts and allocate a generation’s worth of infrastructure funding in the face of a volatile economic climate …

Victorians endorsed the SRL. We went to an election with it. We said we would build the Suburban Rail Loop, and the Victorian community said, ‘Actually, we want to vote you in for another term.’

Matthew Bach interjected.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Dr Bach, I know it is sad. I guess the thing is that if you look at our record, the Labor government’s record, whether it is the Andrews government or the Allan government, when we say we are going to do something, we do it. We are building things. That is why the Victorian community has confidence in us. I can talk about all the things we have done, and I can also highlight all the things that you have not done. The fact is that we need better access to public transport. The Suburban Rail Loop will in fact transform the way that people get around. I just want to get this on the record, because I have got 3 minutes or thereabouts left. This project will not only transform the way that people move around. Of course, you and I are in the same region, the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region, and I would like to see an increase and improvement in public transport, particularly rail. The Suburban Rail Loop does that by connecting Clayton and Box Hill. That is going to be a huge game changer for people who live in those areas, particularly for young people who might want to get to university. They will be able to jump on the train and get to universities like Deakin and others.

For example, the Suburban Rail Loop will create 8000 construction jobs and support another 24,000 ‍jobs across the economy. That is amazing, because the more jobs we create, the more money that actually pumps into the economy. It will take more than 600,000 daily car trips off our roads, slashing congestion and travel times across the transport network. That is really critically important. People do not want to be stuck in their cars on lengthy trips home from work or whatever. As you would know, in the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region, particularly in areas like Manningham and that, there is not a full availability of public transport. There are buses, but if I could get on a train that turned up every so often that just got me there quickly, I would take that rather than being in my car. I would take it any day over driving in a car. It will deliver $58.7 billion in economic, social and environmental benefits to the state, with a positive cost–benefit ratio of between $1.10 and $1.70 for every dollar spent. I know the rhetoric of those opposite is just to say that we have not got it together, that all our costs of projects are blowing out and all this kind of stuff.

Nevertheless, it is a game changer, because a modern city does need to have modern rail. Other people have talked about if you go to Japan, there are turn-up-and-go-type systems, even the Métro in Paris. We do not have those sorts of things. It is time in Australia that we kind of grew up a little bit and had these modern, impressive rail projects that will get people where they need to be, and people coming from overseas will be able to utilise rail in ways that they have not been able to before. I think the Suburban Rail Loop should continue. It will provide enormous benefits to people in my region but also across the broader economy.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (15:36): We have had an interesting array of contributions, some swaying far from what the topic actually was. We had people like Mr Galea basically admitting that this project, regardless of what the experts say – economists, transport experts ‍– is more about the politics. They are admitting this $100 billion project is a pork-barrelling exercise. This has got to be the biggest pork-barrelling exercise in Australian history. This will tie multiple generations down in terms of infrastructure spending for a century. Mr Galea spoke about the Broadmeadows runaway train. This is a runaway train in itself, because it is not actually getting to Broadmeadows until 2052. I know the planning minister was out in Broadmeadows last week, and I believe Hume City Council asked her about where the tunnel would go so they can plan their new activity centre precinct. The minister did not know – of course no-one knows. Maybe while she was there she could have told them about when the Broadmeadows train station is being upgraded, since Frank McGuire promised it but never delivered it.

In terms of the SRL, I do not know, maybe Jacinta Allan, just like at Bendigo station, will create her own office at one of the SRL stations. I heard Ms Terpstra say, ‘It doesn’t matter what the experts say, this is something that we need. We need this kind of public transport network.’ Well, if you are forward thinking in that way, have a look at what the former Liberal government did in New South Wales – driverless, automatic trains to growth areas where people actually need public transport. Instead you have left our growth areas with V/Line trains, where multiple trains are cancelled every morning. That is no way to do infrastructure. You are putting a train around inner-city suburbs, and those opposite have basically admitted – as Dr Bach said, it is popular – that this is a political exercise.

You have the IMF calling on state governments to better manage their infrastructure pipelines at a more measured and coordinated pace, otherwise interest rates would have to be even higher, putting the burden disproportionately on mortgage holders. We are in a cost-of-living crisis. If members opposite vote against this motion, don’t you dare come back and talk about the cost of living and how much people are struggling. This is what they are forcing on the Victorian people and the Australian people, because they have botched the delivery of infrastructure across the state. They are sucking the supply and labour out of every single other project, out of our ability to build homes for people, and they are going to trap Victorians for a century with this infrastructure pipeline so they can build the former Premier’s and the current Premier’s pet project. It is a disgrace. It is economic vandalism, what they are doing.

We have had so many experts. Mr Galea liked to quote universities, so I will just quote an urban professor at RMIT Jago Dodson.

It looks almost like a complete failure in metropolitan planning that a project of this financial magnitude could be decided to proceed with almost no [wider strategic] planning whatsoever.

This is an outrageous project. We know through the IMF and we know through ratings agencies who have commented on it that this project will have an effect on our credit rating and this project will have an effect on interest rates for people not only in this state but across the entire country. It is serious economic vandalism, and what we are saying and what I would say to those opposite and my crossbench colleagues is: this project needs to be paused to go to Infrastructure Victoria – a body you set up, as Gavin Jennings said in this place, to take the politics out of infrastructure. Instead of taking the politics out of infrastructure you set the politics with a bag of cash, gave it to your mates in PwC, sent them up the road, locked the door and said, ‘Come up with this project for us.’ And you took it out onto the former Premier’s social media, and he said ‘This is what we’re going to do’, without any consideration for bankrupting future Victorians by tying our state down with this project.

Council divided on motion:

Ayes (15): Matthew Bach, Melina Bath, Gaelle Broad, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Renee Heath, Ann-Marie Hermans, David Limbrick, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Nick McGowan, Evan Mulholland, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell

Noes (22): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Katherine Copsey, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, David Ettershank, Michael Galea, Shaun Leane, Sarah Mansfield, Tom McIntosh, Rachel Payne, Aiv Puglielli, Georgie Purcell, Samantha Ratnam, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Jaclyn Symes, Lee Tarlamis, Sonja Terpstra, Gayle Tierney, Sheena Watt

Motion negatived.