Thursday, 6 March 2025

Suburban Rail Loop

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:22): (841) My question is to the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. Yesterday the minister said that Labor’s approach to the Suburban Rail Loop was based on priorities that communities have identified. The Cheltenham survey for the SRL precinct has 198 responses. Here is a sample of what the community said:

This project should be cancelled – the state cannot afford it.

Sounds like marketing spin.

… no-one seems to want it except the people planning it.

The SRL plans as of today would break existing community spirit and the area would become a soulless, overdeveloped suburb that hinders quality of life for people living in suburban Melbourne.

Will the minister take into account the responses of the Cheltenham community, or will you ignore their serious concerns?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:23): Thank you, Mr Mulholland, for your question and for your interest in the process of engagement around the delivery of not just these six new stations and the stabling facility but also the development of the draft structure plans and the precincts and areas immediately around those stations and the broader development of areas where that growth will be accommodated so that people can live closer to where they work, can find a home closer to where they grew up and can access public transport, health services and education as the city grows.

As I said yesterday, Mr Mulholland, the population of Cheltenham is modelled to double in size over the next 15 years, and therefore these processes of engagement have been really, really important. You said at the outset of your question that there have been 198 responses to the community engagement process, and that is one part of the engagement that has been undertaken. Conversations started back in 2019. The four examples out of the 198 that you have read out today do in fact indicate the breadth of views around the Suburban Rail Loop and the need to accommodate growth through better planning.

So those four examples out of 198, Mr Mulholland, that you have referred to do highlight that there is a measure of uncertainty within the community, and they highlight the need for ongoing discussion and engagement around what it is that communities want, their concerns and also the suggestions that they have around local ideas for amenity and for livability. What we heard in the course of the Cheltenham engagement very, very clearly was that people are looking for opportunities to increase active transport options for wayfinding and connections between open spaces. There is also a desire to make sure that where people are ageing, they are able to age well in place, that aged care and retirement options are preserved, and that also we are working to ensure that as communities grow, we have that gentle development and density that increases the closer you get to those areas. It will be the southern gateway to the new rail line and, as I said, we are seeing a doubling in population between now and 2041, with the population expected to be around 52,000 by 2056. We are working on site establishment activities. We will have tunnel-boring machines in the ground next year with trains running across this line in 2035, and we are also ensuring that the works can be completed overnight to minimise disruption with traffic changes in place along the Nepean Highway and Bay Road. Water relocations will be underway until late March, so later this month, and we have got a lot of engagement happening across the community ahead of works occurring.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:26): Every Suburban Rail Loop East draft structure plan states that maximum building heights are, and I quote, ‘preferred’. Why has the minister tried to deceive Victorians by claiming the height limits are locked in when this is clearly not the case?

The PRESIDENT: Mr Mulholland, would you mind repeating the question?

Evan MULHOLLAND: Sure. I will repeat it for the minister. Every Suburban Rail Loop East draft structure plan states that maximum height limits are, and I quote, ‘preferred’. Why has the minister tried to deceive Victorians by claiming that height limits are locked in when this is clearly not the case?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:27): The answer is in the question, Mr Mulholland. It is a draft structure plan. That is why when we take this process on and when we look to the way in which these proposed heights are set out in the draft structure plan – it is because they are draft structure plans. There is a process that will be open for comment between 17 March and 22 April through the Engage Victoria site before again we see that exhibition and hearing process.

David Davis interjected.

Harriet SHING: Now, Mr Davis, I am going to – and I know you have ruled on this, President, so I do not intend to flout your ruling. But what I will say is the work that we have done to accommodate, to listen to and to incorporate community views has been evident in the draft structure plans. We will continue to engage with people on this as evidenced by the fact that they are called draft structure plans, Mr Mulholland.