Danielle Green, MLA for Yan Yean. Photo: Ash Long

Yan Yean MLA Danielle Green came out swinging for the North-East’s right to have its own freeway link, when State Parliament sat this week.

“I take great pleasure in joining the debate on the Project Development and Construction Management Amendment Bill 2020 and to come immediately after the voice of inner-city privilege, who purports to be an expert on public transport coming from that transport impoverished area of Prahran,” said Ms Green.

“Give me a break! How dare he come in here and say that the North East Link is not necessary to the economic and transport future of the community that I represent, the hardworking families, students and older people in the north-eastern suburbs.

“We absolutely have a right to projects like the North East Link. We will not be told by those sitting in the cheap seats in the inner city, who will never actually have the privilege of being in government and getting anything done, who just want to pontificate and give lessons to everyone else and say that the system is crumbling.

“Well, he has not taken notice of any of the announcements that we have made about the record numbers of trains and of trams that have been ordered for our network.

“I think he was even saying—it was not even clear—that he supported the outer suburban rail network.

“It is not within the 10-kilometre bamboo curtain. Well, it is not the bamboo curtain, is it. What is it?”

Mr Hamer: “The tofu curtain.”

Ms Green: The tofu curtain—or the quinoa curtain. I should say I like eating tofu and quinoa, but I am not about telling other people how to live their lives and criticising their way of life.

“I know you, Acting Speaker Ward, are also representing the north-eastern suburbs, and we are absolutely on board with the North East Link and especially the tunnel option, which is going to preserve an
enormous amount of our environment.

“I just do not know where to start when you come after something like that tosh we have just heard from the member for Prahran. ‘We should only invest in public transport’.

“How does he think we get goods and services around the place? Does he seriously not understand how we get goods and services around the place?

“In the bill we are talking about the land next door to the Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market.

“I am absolutely certain if the Greens political party were in government, you would have never moved it from Footscray.

“You would have never freed up the capacity of that land and freed up access and grown the port. He would not even understand that the location of that market not only has been a great jobs driver for the northern suburbs, but it has actually taken thousands of trucks off the ringroad
because 75 to 80 per cent of the freight that is destined for the Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market comes down the Hume Highway.

“Before it used to come down the Hume, around the Western Ring Road and into Footscray, and it took forever to get in and out, and that meant it took precious road space from other trucks heading towards the port and other workers trying to go about their business.

“It has been amazing. To have a wholesale fruit, veggie and flower market in Epping has been a game changer for the north, and it has made it easier for the producers and the majority—the 75 to 80 per cent—of freight that comes down to Hume.

“In this bill, because the previous member for Thomastown, Peter Batchelor, thought ahead and got a very large parcel of land there, there is now a parcel of land next door to the Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market that is ripe for development—ripe for industrial development.

“We are always wanting more jobs in the north.

“The CEO of Mitchell shire, when he was the CEO of Whittlesea council, put through a planning control—an aspiration, actually, not a planning control—that for every new house that was built in the City of Whittlesea there would be one new job.

“Well, developing that land involves another 50 per cent again. I do not have the figure right in front of me, but it is a massive parcel of land that was purchased by the state government.

“We thought into the future. I know that the Minister for Priority Precincts will oversee the development of that well, along with other areas like Fishermans Bend and some other priority sites.

“The act has stood the construction industry in good stead in that it has been the mechanism that has seen significant projects being delivered under this act, which have included Federation Square; the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium project, mostly known as AAMI Park, especially for those of us who like going to see some rugby or other sports; stages 1 and 2 of the Melbourne Park redevelopment project; the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre project; the Melbourne Convention Centre development and its various stages; the Melbourne exhibition centre expansion project; the Sidney Myer Music Bowl refurbishment; the Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market relocation project, which I mentioned; the Biosciences Research Centre project; and the Melbourne Show-grounds redevelopment project.

“The machinery of government changes have created some anomalies, which has meant that some of the projects and assets within the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions’s budget responsibility and policy responsibility have incorrectly been sitting in the Department of Transport.

“The member for Prahran may not be aware, but members on the government side of the house and this rather large wedge here in bay 13 that are members of the government know that the Department of Transport has an awful lot of work on its plate.

“The administrative change proposed in the bill before the house will
lighten the load of the Secretary of the Department of Transport so that the Department of Transport can focus on what it is doing best: delivering the Metro Tunnel, doing the planning for the airport rail link and all the improvements that are happening in regional services.

“As you and I know, Acting Speaker, there is the Hurstbridge line stage 2. We have seen great performance in stage 1, so stage 2 is being planned as we speak.

“I had a memory come up on Facebook the other day, and it was the Premier and I, the member for Mill Park and the now Minister for Transport Infrastructure on the greenfield site of Mernda rail. It has been running for about 18 months.

“Four years ago it was a complete greenfield site. Literally it was about last week four years ago when we did the announcement onsite. “Now it is just part of the transport furniture servicing the Yan Yean electorate.

“We are also seeing the work that is occurring. I mentioned the regional rail project. I commend the regional rail authority for what they are doing at Wallan and at Donnybrook station.

“While I am mentioning Wallan, this is the first opportunity I have had to speak since that horrific derailment at Wallan.

“The Minister for Public Transport has just walked into the house, and I know that the workers onsite really valued the fact that she came and spoke to them firsthand.

“She went up to Seymour and saw the drivers. We heard when we passed the industrial manslaughter laws that it is really horrific to have someone die alongside you at work, whether it is for the families or the workers.

“I think it was really important to see that politics were put aside and that the Deputy Prime Minister was there with the Minister for Public Transport, mayor David Lowe and the member for Euroa, all showing our support collectively for that tragedy.

“With those words, I commend the bill to the house, and I condemn the member for Prahran, the innercity voice of privilege,” Ms Green said.

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Danny Pearson, MLA for Essendon, followed with comments in the Legislative Assembly debate:

“It gives me great joy and privilege to be able to rise today to speak on the Project Development and Construction Management Amendment Bill 2020.

“At the very start of the member for Yan Yean’s contribution I was disorderly and I was unruly, as you well know, Acting Speaker Ward, because I interjected and I said to the member for Yan Yean that she should teach the member for Prahran a lesson,” Mr Pearson said.

“Now the member for Yan Yean is a much fairer and better person than me because she avoided that.

“But I think the member for Yan Yean could have shown the member for Prahran how you actually, as a local member, identify a project, champion that project and see that project being delivered, and that is precisely what the member for Yan Yean has done.

“The member for Yan Yean very early on indicated and identified the need for heavy rail to be extended to her electorate, to Mernda, and she was a tireless advocate for that project.

“Through her patience and her advocacy she has delivered a fantastic
outcome for her community. She was amply rewarded at the last election because of her advocacy and because she delivered for her community probably the single biggest investment in public transport that that community had ever seen and, dare I say, probably ever will see.

“For the member for Prahran to come in here and from the cheap seats sledge us, sledge this government, a government which has invested more in public transport than any other previous government, Labor or Liberal, is a bit rich.

“The bill before the house is a fairly straightforward bill. It seeks to address the machinery of government changes which became required with the dissolution of the former Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources and reallocates those responsibilities to the priority precincts portfolio in the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, as well as allocating responsibilities to Transport for Victoria.

“Why I make this comment about the investment that is being made is because when Henry Bolte became the Premier of Victoria in 1955 he did not increase in real terms the budget for public transport in Victoria: the nominal figure stayed throughout those years.

“When Hamer became Premier in 1972 he had his vision for the loop. He pushed and pushed hard in the Bolte cabinet for that project, but he
could not get any support from Bolte for that.

“But when he became Premier he used that position to try to push for, and succeeded in, developing the Melbourne city loop.

“Bear in mind that from 1970 to 2000 public transport patronage tracked with population growth roughly.

“It was growing at around 3 per cent per annum, so broadly speaking the system was not under any great strain or stress.

“Population was growing at a fairly steady rate and public transport usage grew at a fairly steady rate.

“The introduction of the GST in mid-2000 coincided with a petrol price shock, and straightaway people started to use public transport.

“Like most people, I think when they used public transport they realised that it was a very good service, it was a very efficient service, and as a consequence of that we saw rapid public transport patronage growth throughout the first 10 to 15 years of this century.

“I think the figure for that first decade was around about 9 per cent compound growth.

“ I think the figure is 72, so when the cumulative numbers of growth hit 72, you effectively double the size from where you were previously.

“Running up against that of course has been massive population growth as we look to replace the baby boomers, as they retire, with a skilled workforce.

“We are making these sorts of machinery of government changes to give effect to the need for Transport for Victoria and the priority precincts portfolio to get on and deliver these really important projects.

“The member for Prahran asked—honestly I would get more sense out of my four-year-old son than that bloke, seriously—why we cannot just run more trains. Really? As if we have not thought of that.

“I mean, how stupid is this bloke? The loop is clogged and it is congested. You cannot shove any more trains down the loop; it is as simple as that. You have got to unclog the loop.

“I have not been here for that long, but I have listened to the Leader of the House talk about the importance of unclogging the loop in various answers to questions without notice, in various ministers statements and in comments on the adjournment debate.

“You would think that if you had listened to answers provided by the minister you would appreciate the fact that we have to build the metro because the loop is clogged.

“You cannot put any more trains in there because it is clogged. It is a pretty simple proposition, and I would have thought that if you were representing a seat like Prahran, and if you actually use public transport—I catch the train to work regularly — I do not reckon this bloke catches a train regularly at all. You would reckon that you might realise that you cannot put anything more into the system. It is like a pipe. If the pipe is full of water, you cannot put any more water in there; it is as simple as that.”