Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Almost 12 months ago I was very proud to deliver $1 million in planning money for a duplicated rail track between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds. This project is vital for Corangamite. The current single track through the southern part of Geelong limits the frequency and reliability of train services through Marshall, Waurn Ponds, Winchelsea, Birregurra, Colac and beyond through to Warrnambool.

After months of campaigning, I was pleased that the Victorian government finally put this project on its priority list and provided $3 million in funding. Yet, nine months after we made that very important commitment to the people of Geelong and Corangamite, we have heard nothing from the state about the feasibility planning for this project. We have provided the money, and yet we have heard nothing. Where is the plan? Where are the costings? Once again, I call on the state to get its act together and release the feasibility study so that we can get on with building this duplicated track. This has been an issue in my community for 30 and more years. It was an issue when my mother was the member for Geelong—and a great local member she was—in the 1990s. It has inhibited our growth. It is inhibiting our ability to attract new industries to Geelong. If we can have state-of-the-art rail infrastructure in our region, the world is our oyster and there are no limits.

I am very pleased to confirm that I and some of my colleagues are lobbying for greater Commonwealth investment in Victorian infrastructure so we can invest in better passenger rail, duplicate this rail track and fix the Regional Rail Link. We need a Commonwealth regional rail fund to invest in regional rail across Victoria. Like so many other infrastructure projects where the Commonwealth has led the way, we can then do everything possible to leverage the state funding we need. We must have First World passenger train services. We must have the very, very best when it comes to regional rail.

A critical issue for our region is that Labor's much-hyped $3.65 billion Regional Rail Link is soon going to reach capacity, leading to slower and more crowded train services. The link was built to cater for 18 trains per hour and during peak it is already handling 17 trains per hour. A Rail Futures report has found that, instead of speeding Geelong trains up, the Regional Rail Link has in fact slowed them down, with the fastest journey now no better than in 1958—almost 60 years ago.

To make matters worse, trains are expected to become even slower in the future, with long-term plans to build three suburban stations along the Regional Rail Link—and that is on top of the stations which are already there and which, frankly, were never meant to have been there. This was meant to have been a true regional rail link and now there are already stations at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale, which the people of those communities are using more like a suburban service. The regions of Geelong, Colac and all the way through to Warrnambool are being deeply affected. The travelling time for Warrnambool commuters has also increased. The Rail Futures report reveals that the average trip from Melbourne to Warrnambool was 195 minutes in 1985, compared to today's average of 220 minutes. This is simply not good enough.

We have been campaigning for a very long time for Premier Daniel Andrews to start taking Victorian regional infrastructure projects seriously. We have seen Premier Andrews trash our Victorian economy with his reckless decision—perhaps the worst economic decision in Victoria's history—to cancel the East West Link project.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The worst project in history.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'The worst economic decision in Victoria's history' is what I said. In fact—and I will take the member opposite's interjection—this was a project that was previously supported by the likes of the Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Mr Hill interjecting—

I ask that the member not interject.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind the member for Bruce that the previous speaker was heard in silence.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is part of the problem with the Labor Party. The Labor Party does not care about infrastructure. It is now building the Western Distributor, which is a poor cousin of the East West Link. The member opposite shows he has no care whatsoever for regional communities, and it is an absolute joke. In fact, the western road into Geelong—the western section of the East West Link—had a very high BCR, frankly, and is greatly needed for our community. This is simply not good enough.

We need a state government led by Matthew Guy, who has the vision and the foresight to invest in regional infrastructure. We need a fast train between Melbourne and Geelong. We need to know that, when the people of Geelong and the people of Corangamite decide to live in our wonderful part of the world, they can get on a train and, if they work in Melbourne, commute successfully.

We recognise that Victoria and Melbourne in particular are growing very quickly. We need to do more and we want to do more. We simply do not have the pipeline of infrastructure projects at the moment under this state government, and that really is a shocking situation that we find ourselves in. It is incredible that in so many respects it is the Commonwealth leading the way in driving these infrastructure projects. In 2013 we announced $50 million to upgrade the Great Ocean Road—a project that was not supported by federal Labor. In concert with the state we have just announced another $50 million, but it took Daniel Andrews some six months to agree to match the funding of $345 million for Victorian rural and regional roads as part of a $1.5 billion package that we delivered—money that was allocated to the East West Link which we have now had to reallocate because we cannot get agreement from this Victorian government. But we have $3 billion on the table because we are determined to see the East West Link built.

Just last weekend I was talking to people who live in the western suburbs of Melbourne, and there is a lot of anger in those communities because they are absolutely caught in this horrific traffic bind, not able to commute in and out of Melbourne and under the leadership of a premier who does not seem to care about regional infrastructure. I am working very closely with the likes of the member for Wannon, who also cares deeply about regional rail—and I know many other members do—and, of course, the member for Gippsland, the federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, who is very empathetic to these issues.

We must see this money flow into our communities. We must see the vision. We must see the planning. That is why I am pushing so hard for a city deal to bring the Commonwealth, the state and local government together to drive one vision, one plan—to get this commitment to bring people around the table. Geelong is an amazing place to live, and we are so proud of the commitments that we have made. Look at the difference the investment in the Princes Highway has made. The duplicated Princes Highway, which is costing in excess of half a billion dollars, is an absolute game changer for our region. There is now a housing shortage in Colac. Industries want to head into south-west Victoria because of that road. We know how critical transport infrastructure is to our region.

So I say: Victoria, get your act together. Produce the plan, and help and work with us to drive the infrastructure investment that we need. I am going to continue to lobby my government very hard to deliver more funding for better passenger rail so vital for Geelong and so vital for Corangamite.