Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Suburban Rail Loop

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:26): (826) My question is to the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. We know that federal infrastructure minister Catherine King said there were still hurdles Victoria needed to overcome in order to receive additional Commonwealth investment. I refer to the SRL business and investment case, which states that:

… value capture … is likely to represent a relatively small proportion of overall funding requirements.

How can the government claim one-third of the SRL will be funded by value capture when their own business case states it is likely to represent a relatively small proportion of funding?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:27): Again this is an opportunity for me to talk to the business case, which your colleague Michael Sukkar does not seem to understand exists and was published back on 19 August 2021.

Renee Heath interjected.

Harriet SHING: If you think it is a prop, Dr Heath, then you should read it too.

Renee Heath: On a point of order, President, the minister was told last week. She is once again using props, and I ask you to call her to order.

The PRESIDENT: I uphold the point of order. I did say to the chamber that props should not be used.

Nick McGowan: On a point of order, President, given that a prop has been used and the document has been offered, I ask that the document be tabled.

The PRESIDENT: Is the minister prepared to table that one?

Harriet SHING: Sure.

The PRESIDENT: This is the way we work – very good.

Harriet SHING: I might save the Clerk some work today, because you were referring to sticky notes. Let me take you to sticky notes that I have got here on the side of this business case published on 19 August 2021. One of them says ‘Plan Melbourne and SRL’, because the last week we were here you refused to acknowledge that there was any connection with Plan Melbourne and the fact that Plan Melbourne actually fully backed in orbital rail for the city as it grows. Matthew Guy and his predecessor, his political ancestor, Jeff Kennett –

Evan Mulholland: On a point of order, on relevance, President, the minister has gone nowhere near the question on value capture. I ask you to bring the minister back to the question.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I call the minister to the question.

Harriet SHING: It is unfortunate that you keep interrupting me when I am giving you answers to precisely the things that you are raising by way of interjection. Former Premier Jeff Kennett thought it was a great idea until somebody across at the Cormack Foundation decided that he should not say that anymore, and Matthew Guy –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, a minister’s job in question time is to answer questions, not to attack other figures across the community and the opposition.

The PRESIDENT: There are a lot of precedents about not attacking the opposition in the answering of questions by ministers. There are no precedents about other figures. I will call the minister to the question.

Harriet SHING: Mr Davis, if you think that referring to former Premier Jeff Kennett’s support for the Suburban Rail Loop is an attack, then that says more about your political lack of acumen than perhaps anything else. Back to the point that you have raised also, Mr McGowan, in seeking that this business case of 19 August 2021 be tabled, the other sticky note that I have says ‘SRL North, East and West’. When you open it up – page 13 by the way for those who are following along at home – it talks to the case for investment, articulating the strategic need for SRL, and identifies the problems and challenges the program will help to address. It begins with –

Evan Mulholland: On a point of order, President, on relevance, I asked about the investment case, talking about the proportion of funding being low, and I asked the minister to speak on the value capture and answer questions with regard to that. It was very specific. The minister is straying far from what I asked.

The PRESIDENT: I sense the minister was about to get to that.

Harriet SHING: Indeed. Thank you very much, President. I will continue, Mr Mulholland. Again, in talking about investment and investment return, we have got a ratio of 1.1 to 1.7, which you would know, because obviously you have read the business case dated 19 August 2021. But if you go to page 85 of the business case, you will see very clearly that the business investment case talks to the need for SRL East and SRL North, and it also talks to the importance of value capture as part of the way in which we deliver this nation-building project. Now, this is not a unique model, Mr Mulholland, but you would not know because the only major project that you delivered was to close the New Street, Brighton, level crossing.

What I would say is that when we deliver nation-building infrastructure projects which will enable us to manage population growth and to do so in a way that addresses precisely the issues of congestion, of disadvantage and of lack of opportunity, we need to do so in a way that ensures that developers and industry that are receiving a benefit from investment across these growth areas are making a contribution. Check out the draft structure plans that were announced just yesterday, Mr Mulholland, and there is an opportunity for you and indeed anyone else to have your say between 17 March and 22 April in relation to that work – thousands of submissions, hundreds of conversations. The work goes on. You should be part of it.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:32): On the supplementary, the business and investment case also says one of the key challenges of using value capture mechanisms as a capital project funding source is the timing mismatch between when the funding is required – obviously at the construction phase – and when the sources will be received, which is over a much longer period of time. Minister, how much extra money will the state need to borrow to cover this funding gap?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:33): Again, Mr Mulholland, what I will take you to is the business case and the investment case itself and the way in which this details very, very clearly the way in which we are developing and delivering the ‘a third, a third, a third’ model. We will continue as we move towards SRL East in particular – tunnel-boring machines in the ground from next year, trains operating across those six stations, the first part of the orbital rail link in 2035. Mr Mulholland, we will see 70,000 homes being able to be developed and delivered around these areas. It will be 230,000 jobs, Mr Mulholland. It will enable us to address areas of growth. Let us just take an example. Cheltenham, Mr Mulholland, is an area where the size of the population is going to double in the next 15 years. We have an opportunity to ensure that people can live closer to where they grew up. We will do that in partnership with developers and with industry, and we will do that in careful discussion with the community, including in relation to decisions that are changed over time in direct response to community feedback. The work goes on. You should get on board.