Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Hume, for your question. As you know, Melbourne, in the great state of Victoria, is growing by more than 140,000 people each and every year. This congestion is being felt by families and businesses in our home state. The Liberal-National government has a plan to ease the impact of that population growth with our $75 billion congestion-busting infrastructure package for major road, rail, regional development and other public transport infrastructure.

For more than 50 years, Victorians have been calling for a rail link to Melbourne Airport from Melbourne city. The federal government has put $5 billion on the table to finally connect Tullamarine airport to the city by rail. Victorians will also benefit from the $235 million upgrade to the North East Rail Line between Melbourne and Albury-Wodonga, which will improve the journey for regional passengers and communities along the route, including right throughout the electorate of Indi. We're going further, investing $1.6 billion for the Regional Rail Revival package to deliver improvements across each and every regional passenger line in Victoria. More than 1,000 jobs will be created to deliver much-needed upgrades.

Senator Kim Carr interjecting—