Well, it is with great pleasure that I rise to speak on the Transport Legislation Miscellaneous Amendments Bill 2021 this afternoon, and this bill really does reflect our government’s continued commitment to improving our transport system right across Victoria and indeed my patch of the outer west, Tarneit. Now, Victorians know that this government, the Andrews Labor government, is synonymous with the Big Build that is transforming our state. Earlier today I had a little bit of a chuckle back in my office down there, and I think it was the member for Evelyn who tried to liken the way in which my colleagues and I talk about the Big Build as being as if we were talking about a person, I think it was, and referring to this person on a very regular basis. Well, I say to the member for Evelyn and anyone else who thinks that on this side of the house we talk about the Big Build as a person: this would be a person that Victorians absolutely love. Let me tell you why they love any person associated with the Big Build. It is because this person is getting on right across our state with changing the lives of Victorian families, changing the lives of people in my community of Tarneit and making their lives a whole lot better by reducing congestion, building bigger, better roads, building more train stations and, most importantly, getting people to where they want to go sooner rather than later so they can spend more time with their loved ones and less time in places like the car.

The last time we debated a bill like this I had the opportunity to talk about some of the really fantastic projects that our government is delivering for Tarneit families, and I am pretty pleased to stand here this afternoon and reflect truly on how these projects have progressed since, because they have really come a long way. The $1.8 billion western roads project has now been completed, and I cannot begin to tell you here today how much of a difference this has made to my community. I see this on a daily basis. I have people emailing me constantly on a daily basis about how fantastic the western roads project has been for them in getting in and around our local community.

Now, when I am out in the electorate or I am even just back in my office and talking to staff, all I hear about is how much easier these upgraded roads have made it to travel around my electorate. Driving down Leakes Road—Leakes Road is the blood line of my community. It cuts across all the suburbs involved with the electorate of Tarneit, and for years and years—for far too long—it used to be a slog, with roadwork after roadwork and peak-hour traffic on some days bringing it to an absolute standstill. But today it is an absolute breeze, with duplicated and in some areas even triplicated roadways making the journey to and from, most importantly, the West Gate Freeway that much quicker. Forsyth Road has seen a refreshing upgrade, with a duplicated bridge across the freeway and a brand new intersection at Old Geelong Road replacing what was a really ill-equipped T-intersection and roundabout. It has never been easier for commuters in my community to get between Hoppers Crossing, Williams Landing and Point Cook with these works now complete, and these are just two of the eight roads, all in Wyndham, that have seen massive, massive upgrades. Derrimut Road in some areas is absolutely unrecognisable from what it was, as is Palmers Road. That we have delivered these life-changing road upgrades is something that as a government and most certainly as the member for Tarneit we can all be incredibly proud of.

We are not just upgrading our roads. The Level Crossing Removal Project has been hard at work day and night in my community to fast-track the removal of the Old Geelong Road level crossing. Now, works are progressing very well on installing the new road bridge while the foundations of the new pedestrian overpass are currently being built. This level crossing removal is something that my community has wanted for a very, very long time, and I know just how glad they are to see that it is being removed for good within this term. By next year, not 2025—some locals tried to tell me it would be 2025—Wyndham will be level crossing free from Laverton to Werribee, just in time for the track upgrades as part of the Geelong fast rail.

Now, when I think of these projects and of the benefits they have brought to our community, I am reminded that they have only been possible because of our government’s commitment to making Melbourne’s west and, really importantly, Melbourne’s outer west—the west is a very big place to live—a great place to live, because it is only Labor governments that deliver the vital infrastructure that we need in the west. We all know it, which is why I found it pretty interesting a couple of weeks ago hearing about those opposite and their plan for a surplus by 2026 if they are elected next year. I would absolutely love to hear from those opposite what that would mean for my community in Tarneit, for the families that live in Wyndham and for the western suburbs of Melbourne, who always seem to miss out when those opposite are in government—because we were absolutely set back the last time they were in power, in government. When I hear from my community about how glad they are that these works are now done, they often lament—I think that is a polite way of saying it—how these should have been done years ago. And I indeed agree with my community. The four-year period of the Baillieu and Napthine governments was a period of absolute paralysis in Melbourne’s west and something that our government has worked really hard—we have spent a lot of money—to make sure we have turned around.

I would love to stand here in this place and would love to say that these works are the solution to all of our transport issues, but we know that is not the case. Tarneit and the outer west continue to experience unprecedented growth, and we will continue to need investment from our government—investment from our government into infrastructure, into the infrastructure right into our future. These are investments, I say to my local community, that only an Andrews Labor government will deliver for us. What I fear from the rhetoric of those opposite, when they talk about budget savings and cuts to spending, is that my community and Melbourne’s west will once again be left behind.

When I think about how we have almost finished removing every level crossing in Wyndham, I am reminded that those opposite had wanted to stop every single one of them if they had got in at the last election. That is really important for my community to hear. If they had got in at the last election, Wyndham would not be looking at being level crossing free on the metro line, and that would be for the sake of budget savings. Now, when complications arose on the West Gate Tunnel Project they wanted to can it altogether. They even moved a motion in the Legislative Council to do so, with no regard for the commuters in my community for whom the project will in fact be life-changing. I have to laugh when instead I hear them trot out the old east–west link promise—a project that has been proven to be of low cost-benefit to the community, that has been voted down by the Victorian people time and time again and that has never really offered any real benefit to commuters in my community trying to get over the West Gate Bridge.

I really hope that when the Leader of the Opposition somehow found his way to our local community recently in Wyndham, he took the opportunity—

Ms Green: Was he lost?

Ms CONNOLLY: Likely—to see what our government has been up to in Wyndham. I hope he got to drive around on the roads that we have just upgraded and he got to see the level crossings that we are removing and the state-of-the-art schools that we are building, that we are constructing, right across Wyndham. For a bloke who has probably acknowledged we need to do quite a bit more—there is still more work to do—you never hear him acknowledge that they failed to do anything out there in their term of government. Because if all those opposite could see the visionary work that our government has achieved in my local community, they might just be inspired with a vision of their own instead of trotting out old, worn policies like their ‘African gangs’ in my local community and their talk around crime. Again, it is very disappointing to see that rhetoric.

Now, I could speak for hours about the benefits of this bill, the benefits of transport infrastructure for communities like mine. This bill is another step forward in our government’s commitment to a bold infrastructure program, and it needs to be bold because it is unprecedented growth. All of this infrastructure is life-changing for our community, and it is why I wholeheartedly commend this bill to the house.