Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge Victoria's election result on the weekend, and in particular the Premier-elects untenable position on the East West Link. I would urge Dan Andrews to think long and hard about the future of the East West Link project. As I have said many times before in this place, the East West Link is a crucial piece of infrastructure for Deakin residents, reducing travel times by up to 3 hours a week. It will also create 6,700 jobs during the construction phase. As the federal member for Deakin, my electorate covers an important part of Melbourne's eastern suburbs, and indeed voters in Melbourne's east made clear their desire for the completion of the East West Link project this week.

While votes are still being counted, it is clear that all of the state electorates that fall within the Deakin electorate have emphatically returned their Liberal MPs, with the East West Link featuring prominently in voters' minds. It therefore remains abundantly clear that people living in Melbourne's eastern suburbs strongly support the East West Link and want the incoming Labor state government to honour the contracts to build this critical piece of infrastructure.

If Dan Andrews follows through on his pre-election threat to tear up the contracts for this project, he and the Labor Party will once again be abandoning the people of Melbourne's east. I therefore call on Dan Andrews and Bill Shorten not to turn their backs on the people of Melbourne's east and put at risk thousands of jobs, and instead support this vital project.

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