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

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the role of Government leadership in ensuring the productivity and liveability of Australian cities; and

(2) notes:

(a) the importance of public transport infrastructure in shaping cities and regions;

(b) the record funding commitments for urban public transport infrastructure made under the previous Labor government, including $3.2 billion for the Regional Rail Link project and a further $3 billion committed to the Melbourne Metro rail project (Metro Tunnel);

(c) the recent Infrastructure Australia report Future Cities: Planning for our growing population, which highlights the need for Australian governments to increase investment in public transport in areas experiencing rapid population growth, including in Melbourne's west;

(d) that if an appropriate route is selected, the construction of an airport rail link to Melbourne Airport through Melbourne's west has the potential to create social and economic benefits across the region; and

(e) that further public transport infrastructure projects for fast growing regions like Melbourne's west will be needed in the near future to meet the challenge of population growth.

Australia's major cities are now the engines of the Australian economy. Australia's five largest cities contribute two-thirds of Australia's GDP and, given this, ensuring that our cities remaining productive, livable and free from structural disadvantage should be a core policy priority for all levels of government in this nation. The enormous population growth that has been experienced by our cities in recent decades and its projected continuation into the future raise major challenges for governments in the regard.

Melbourne's west, in my electorate, is on the front line of this challenge. Melbourne's west is booming. Its population is growing at twice the state average. Between the last two censuses we welcomed more than a grand final crowd at the MCG's worth of people to our community. Now, nearly, one-in-five Melburnians call Melbourne's west home. If Melbourne's west continues to grow at this rate, its population will double in just under 20 years. Anyone who lives in Melbourne's west who catches the Sunbury, Williamstown or Werribee lines into the city or who drives a car over the West Gate Bridge to get to work knows that our transport networks are straining under this growth. Traffic congestion could cost our economy up to $20 billion a year in lost time by 2020 if not addressed.

In this high-growth era, the transport infrastructure decisions that governments make or do not make now will shape our cities for decades. The record investments of federal and state Labor governments in public transport in Melbourne's west show this. The previous federal Labor government committed more funding for urban public transport infrastructure than every other government back to Federation combined. These investments shaped our region. The $3.225 billion invested in the Regional Rail Link project separated regional trains from urban commuter trains and increased capacity on urban commuter routes by laying 90 kilometres of new track. New train stations were added by this project to connect new residential communities in Wyndham Vale and Tarneit. We also committed $3 billion for the Melbourne metro rail tunnel, increasing capacity on the Sunbury line by 60 per cent and connecting Melbourne's west to the rail, health, higher education and employment hub at Parkville for the first time.

Investments of this kind stopped in 2013. The Abbott government was open about its contempt for urban public transport infrastructure, going so far as to withdraw the Commonwealth funding for the Melbourne metro rail tunnel that Labor had committed. The Turnbull government is less transparent about its actions and its intents. The Melbourne metro rail link is a case in point. As the state government was already well advanced in planning for the Melbourne airport rail link, the Prime Minister clearly thought that this project might offer him a political fig leaf for his neglect of Victoria on infrastructure investment. I was intrigued by the PM's interest. The Sunshine-Albion corridor route, long investigated by state governments, has the potential to follow the city-shaping legacy of the regional rail link and the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel for my electorate. Melbourne airport has 35 million passengers a year and that is forecast to grow to 60 million passengers by 2033. A Melbourne airport rail link that connects the city to Sunshine and then uses the Albion rail corridor to the airport would allow this area to become a major hub to connect the city and the regional train networks, becoming a major new hub for travellers from Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. Sunshine is an ideal location for a health and education services hub that could bring jobs closer to where people live in Melbourne's west, easing the strain on our transport network and commuters.

When the budget was released, however, the Prime Minister's $5 billion wasn't there. He wants to fund this project off-budget, meaning that our investment banker Prime Minister is expecting to make a financial return for the Commonwealth on this investment. This risks putting competing priorities, like securing private sector contributions, or so-called 'value capture arrangements', above the city-shaping potential of this infrastructure for Melbourne's west. It risks this Prime Minister putting the commercial interests of property developers circling the Maribyrnong defence site above those of regional Victorians wanting fast train connections to the CBD and above those of the residents of Melbourne's west who need an employment and services cluster in their community that would create jobs in their community, not the CBD, easing the transport commuter pressure running through our community.

We need a Prime Minister with the right priorities on urban public transport infrastructure, a Prime Minister whose first priority is everyday Australians trying to get to work, trying to get to school, trying to get to the shops or where they need to go. We need a Prime Minister who will fight for jobs in regional areas in Australia and in the outer suburbs of our CBDs, not the top end of town. We don't need a Prime Minister who's trying to make a deal with the big end of town at the cost of these people. The decision about the route for the Melbourne airport rail link is a decision that will shape Melbourne for decades to come. Given the population growth we're experiencing in Melbourne and Melbourne's west, it is crucial that we get this decision right, and to get it right we need a government with the right priorities.

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