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

Despite traffic in Melbourne getting worse by the week, after the last state election Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Bill Shorten shamefully turned their backs on this problem by cancelling the much-needed East West Link. Regardless of the evidence demonstrating the ever-worsening congestion on the Eastern Freeway, Premier Daniel Andrews, Bill Shorten and Labor chose to spend $1.2 billion to rip up the project contracts just to appease a few inner-city Greens voters, all at the expense of long-suffering commuters in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Now we find that, for weeks on end, squatters have been allowed to illegally occupy empty homes on the land acquired for the construction of the East West Link. Local residents in Collingwood have been terrorised by these thugs, who refuse to leave the properties now designated to support those most in need, including victims of domestic violence. All this has been met with indifference by Labor and the local member, who have stood by and idly watched a wave of crime take place in this area and are now turning their backs on those they purport to advocate for. This sorry saga represents all that is rotten with modern Labor and the socialist Greens—no action to fix some of the worst traffic congestion in the country, and then they allow law and order to get out of control in our suburbs. This is just the latest chapter in this sorry saga, and we will build the East West Link.