Hamilton V/Line ticketing
Emma KEALY (Lowan) (09:37): I raise a matter for the Minister for Public Transport. Recently the Hamilton community were very surprised to hear that the V/Line ticketing office would be closed. There was no notice given to the community, and this is of course of critical importance. It means there is a loss of jobs locally and there is a loss of services, but more importantly, local people and particularly elderly people are going to find a backlog to be able to buy a ticket to get on a bus to travel to Ararat and get on a train and go through to Melbourne. Often there are a lot of people who are waiting to buy a ticket. There is simply not enough time for bus drivers to be able to sell all of those tickets. It is a similar situation that we have seen in Horsham with the closure of the ticketing office there. In both sites there are no local ticketing agents. I ask the minister: did he approve of the closure of the Hamilton office, why did Labor support this and what businesses have been approached to provide an opportunity to become a V/Line ticketing agent and ensure these services are not discontinued?