Tuesday, 21 February 2023

Ministers statements: transport infrastructure

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery) (14:24): As we know, not only does the Andrews Labor government build the infrastructure that our growing city and state need into the future, but we are also driving every single dollar as hard as we can to maximise the broader community benefits out of our projects.

Whether it is our apprenticeship targets, getting more women on construction sites or our renewable and recycling targets that are built into every single tender, we are out there getting bang for buck across our program. I know the member for Mordialloc knows this well. Not only is the Mordialloc Freeway a great road project that is slashing travel times for people travelling in the south-eastern suburbs, the noise walls were made from 75 per cent recycled plastic collected from households. That is the equivalent of 30 million water bottles – not Perrier – or the plastic waste collected from 25,000 Victorians’ homes in one year. Even better, as the member for Carrum and the Minister for Planning know, these recycled noise walls were made in Carrum Downs by Pact Group, keeping local people working on local projects that they benefit from.

Also, we have installed 1500 composite recycled plastic sleepers across the regional rail network, and they are made in regional Victoria, in Mildura. I believe the Minister for Energy and Resources knows this very well. Not only are we keeping all of our regions involved in our investment in infrastructure, we are making sure the job benefit is spread as well.

It does not stop there. On the Suburban Rail Loop all trains will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy. The members for Cranbourne and Sunbury know too that on the Hall Road and Sunbury Road upgrades we are using solar sheds to capture the solar energy for our sites. To build big you have to recycle big and think big about renewable energy and support that big and important pipeline across the Victorian community.