Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this timely debate, with the state election in Victoria some five days away. On this side of the House we do not support the East West Link, and we have various reasons for not supporting it. We support the Victorian opposition leader Daniel Andrews's position against the East West Link. We do so because the Eddington report recommended a west-east link, that the west section be the first priority. This is now stretching out—the budget papers suggest until 2023; I would suggest it is at least 15 years away. The member for Corangamite earlier cited support from the previous member for Lalor for the project. Of course, the previous member for Lalor's support for the project was for the initial west-east link. Since then, under a Napthine government, many things have changed.

One of the things that has changed is that the Western Distributor was taken off the agenda. The Western Distributor, which Daniel Andrews's government will deliver if elected on Saturday, is exactly what the west of Victoria needs, it exactly what the Western suburbs need and it is exactly what Geelong needs, because it is immediate—it would be delivered in four years—and it would take 5,000 trucks off the West Gate Freeway. It is shovel-ready and ready to go. But, instead, we have the member for Corangamite in here talking about the East West Link as a saviour for the west, with a time line leading out to the never-never. It certainly will not be delivered under a Napthine government if it gets another term. It will take three terms for this to be delivered. Meanwhile, the number of people on the roads from the west of Melbourne accessing the city increases daily, as do the number of trucks, as do the dangerous accidents that are occurring involving cars and trucks.

The other part of this argument is to look at the federal funding for the eastern section, stage 1 of the East West Link, where we have contributed $1.5 billion. It is difficult to make the case for stage 1 of the East West Link being of any benefit to the west of Melbourne—any benefit whatsoever. It will not improve travel times from the west to the airport like it will in the east, and it will not be a significant improvement on travel times for people from the west to get to the east.

Then there is the issue we have with cost. The true cost is unknown. We did have some academics recently determine that they think that the cost is actually going to be closer to $18 billion, with no value at all for the west of the state. Then there is the issue of the contract and the secrecy around the contract to date and the fact that there has not been a business case put to the Victorian public—put to anyone in fact. So the rush to get the contracts signed before this state election is something that the Victorian public are struggling to come to terms with. As the member for Chisholm so nicely put it, there is also the question of the absolute incessant priority around roads over public transport. What we are going to get with the Western Distributor, as the first cab off the rank for an Andrews government, would be fewer trucks on the road for the West Gate, at a fraction of the cost, and we will not wait in the west for the year 2023.

Another thing that people on the other side talk about a lot in this debate is jobs. Let's be clear.

Debate interrupted.

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