Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last weekend I was very pleased to attend the opening of the Regional Rail Link in Melbourne's west, a joint venture of state and federal Labor governments that began during the height of the Global Financial Crisis in 2009. The Regional Rail Link project is the biggest Commonwealth investment in public transport infrastructure in our nation's history. And the benefits are clear: the project adds 54,000 passenger seats per day; it services the regional centres of Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong; 15,000 Victorians worked on the project; and it will save millions in wasted commuting time—a great Labor project for Victoria.

The opening was attended by the Premier, Daniel Andrews, and a bevy of state and federal MPs including the members for Lalor, Corio, Bendigo, Grayndler and the Deputy Prime Minister—he took centre stage at a project unveiling he had nothing to do with and had voted against in opposition. When asked about the government's position on funding the next necessary public transport project in Victoria, the Melbourne Metro Rail project, he forgot his lines and went rogue. He said, 'We will probably receive approaches in relation to that project. If we receive those approaches then we will have them assessed by Infrastructure Australia and make a decision.'

The problem is that the Prime Minister is singing a very different tune. He told 3AW earlier this year:

We do not fund urban rail projects; we fund roads of national significance and we fund nationally significant freight rail projects but we don't fund commuter rail.

This government should start getting itself in order by leaving its antiquated ideology at the door, heed the advice of Infrastructure Australia, and support the next big public transport infrastructure project for Victoria—the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel.

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