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

I rise, like the member for Deakin, to celebrate an event that occurred in Victoria on the weekend. On Saturday I did an impromptu tour of schools in the electorate of Lalor and I was absolutely thrilled, as I visited schools, to hear the public talking about how great our schools look and how good those BER projects were. I was there assisting my state colleagues in handing out material for the election. I want to stand up to say that we are very pleased in Victoria to have returned a Labor government and to remind the member for Deakin that the Prime Minister called the state election in Victoria a referendum on the East West Link. That being the case, I hereby declare the referendum determined. It was also a referendum, I believe, on the Metro. I look forward to the development of the Melbourne Metro and some funding going into public transport, because Victoria voted for public transport. They voted for the Western Distributor. Those in the west in my electorate are very pleased that we will be turning soil on the Western Distributor shortly. I also wanted to note that the majority of candidates elected in the western suburbs of Melbourne are women, and that 47 per cent of the Labor caucus in the Victorian parliament will be women. I think that is something that everyone in this House—particularly on this side—would celebrate. So congratulations to Daniel Andrews.