Thursday, 6 February 2025

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Suburban Rail Loop

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:00): (789) My question is to the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. Minister, why did the government fight for three years to prevent the release of the SRL risk register? Was this to avoid embarrassment due to its obvious inadequacies?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:00): Thank you, Mr Davis, for that question. When you say ‘the risk register’, what you are doing there is betraying your lack of understanding about what it means to have an integrated strategy and financial management framework. The Financial Management Act –

David Davis: You have got to be joking.

Harriet SHING: I will pick up that interjection. Mr Davis, the joke here is that you have not read the business case which was released on 19 August 2021. You have not read about the integrated management framework that exists under the Financial Management Act, which applied when you were last in government. You have not delivered any major projects – no, wait. The major project that you delivered when you were in government was to close the New Street, Brighton, level crossing. What you have missed thus far to the point is it is not ‘the risk register’. It is not ‘the risk register’, it is an ongoing process of being able to report the costs and benefits aligned with the delivery of a major project, Mr Davis.

When we look at the business case – and I am not sure whether you have – and we see that the benefit–‍cost ratio realised is between 1.1 and 1.7, that is a far cry from what was developed and delivered by you.

David Davis interjected.

Harriet SHING: Do you want to talk about rubbish, Mr Davis? An 11-page business case from you lot on the east–west link –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, it is a very simple question I have asked. It is a narrow question about one project. It is not a question about the opposition or to attack the opposition. It is an opportunity for the minister to answer the precise question that was asked.

The PRESIDENT: I believe the minister was being relevant to the question up until the last 10 seconds or so.

Harriet SHING: The unfortunate part of perhaps me straying from the question itself was the interjection and the very defensive approach being taken by Mr Davis, perhaps belying the fact that he has not ever had to be part of delivering a nation-shaping project like this. The investment management standard, Mr Davis, if you have a look at the business case – actually, you know what, what I might do is I am happy to seek to table this document today on the basis that it might well assist.

David Davis: It has already been tabled in the chamber, but –

Harriet SHING: Let us go again, Mr Davis.

The PRESIDENT: Can you do that outside?

Harriet SHING: Outside? Sure, President.

David Davis: Just by leave, I wonder if I might table the risk register.

Harriet SHING: It has been released publicly. You have got it already, Mr Davis.

The PRESIDENT: I want to get the minister to acquit this question and the follow-up question, and then I will pause briefly if any member wants to move by leave if they want to table any type of document. The minister to continue her answer, hopefully in some silence.

Harriet SHING: While we are on show-and-tell, Mr Davis, why don’t we go to 3.1 of the business case, which was published on 19 August 2021 –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, it is not a business case, it is an investment case.

The PRESIDENT: That is not a point of order.

Harriet SHING: The Financial Management Act creates obligations under any public sector agency – that includes the SRLA – to have a risk management framework. Mr Davis, I am just wondering if you have any risk management frameworks, under for example occupational health and safety, that you might also like to table as they relate to the activities of your office.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:05): I note the minister did not directly answer the question about the delay in releasing this information. I ask therefore: Minister, the 2020 register points to the high risk and places red against the issue of funding. The register was initially produced, as I said, in 2020, and it is now 2025. Minister, isn’t it a fact that the risk is now even greater, given that almost five years have elapsed and that the Commonwealth still refuses to add any additional funding?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:05): Thank you, Mr Davis. There is a fair bit in what you have just said. I will try to cover it with the time that I have available. There is actually an entire section in the annual report which goes to the risks and contingencies and valuation judgments of the SRLA, and that is at page 65 of that report. Mr Davis, again I reject the premise of your question saying that this is ‘the’ register. There is an ongoing process of analysis and assessment as to risks and realisation of benefit. You would be well advised, Mr Davis, to start with a document that is at least a year ahead of the document you are referring to in order to understand the basis upon which the ratio and the rationale for the SRL has been developed.

Mr Davis, there is $2.2 billion in the federal budget. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been very clear that the project is a defining priority for the building of this nation. If Peter Dutton is going to scrap the regional rail link and the Suburban Rail Loop investments that we are making and continue to make as part of developing Victoria into the future, he needs to say so, and you need to say whether you back it in.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:06): I move, by leave:

That the 2020 document, the risk register, as it is called, be tabled.

Leave refused.