3/22/2023

It is a great pleasure to rise and speak on this matter of public importance, noting this tremendous policy of the Andrews Labor government, our public transport regional fare cap policy for regional Victorians. In simple terms this is about fairness. This is a policy that will see fairness being delivered across the state and fairness for regional Victorians. But when you look a little bit closer at this policy, it is much more than that. I know as a regional MP this policy goes straight to the heart of the Bellarine and our regions, and it has been wholeheartedly welcomed in the Bellarine since it was announced last year. Consumers, users of the rail and regional Victorians are at the centre of this policy, and they will soon be paying the same price as their metro Melbourne neighbours.

Right now a daily full fare from Geelong to Melbourne costs up to 83 to come to Melbourne. The kids do love tapping on and jumping on the train, but when you compare this to Melbourne prices it just does not seem fair at all. So this is about fairness and equity. When we announced this last year the Labor government recognised that regional people needed a better deal, and that is what we will be delivering. Fairness is important, but it is also about doing something meaningful for that and it is about addressing the cost of living. These fairer regional fares are going to help a lot of regional Victorians with cost-of-living pressures. I know we all feel the pain as we fill up our cars with petrol at the moment and families are watching every dollar that goes out of that household budget, so it is very important.

But if you are a regular traveller at the moment on the V/Line service, for example from Geelong to Melbourne, you are also racking up a pretty substantial bill, and I would like to share a little bit of an example of this from a Bellarine constituent who contacted me. The Bellarine constituent was so excited about this policy that she emailed me two days after the election. The election was on the Saturday. By Monday she was emailing me. She wanted to know more about the policy but also know when it was going to start. Stephanie explained that in her family her husband is a critical care nurse. He works as an associate nurse unit manager on a cardio ward in Melbourne, and she explained that he is really dedicated to his profession. He loves his job and is a very senior nurse, and he worked tirelessly during the pandemic. The only problem that they had really was the cost of his train travel back and forth to Melbourne. Their household was spending over 1.5 billion to build 59 VLocity trains, and guess what? It is about jobs. It is about good-quality jobs. It is about creating career pathways and secure jobs in our regions.

As much as the prices are now becoming fairer, and that is welcome, people do say that they want better services and more trains more often. Well, that is exactly what we are committing to do - 23 new VLocity trains, securing hundreds of jobs also over the next three years. As we heard from other members' contributions, we have also provided an extra 800 services since 2014 to the V/Line network, and a further 200 weekend regional services have been committed. This is actually putting into action our core values of supporting people into employment in this state. It is very simple: Labor believes trains made for Victorians should be made by Victorians. These extra trains will run from 2024, and as new trains roll off that production line, I cannot wait to see that.

Just to highlight the difference here, though, with the alternative proposals that were proposed in the election, regional Victorians would have had to face cuts in services to keep this operational. The fact is that if the opposition had formed government in November with their $2 ticketing policy, it would have hurt not only regional commuters but the whole transport network.

We do things that matter for everyday Victorians. I am so proud of this investment. It will help people across the Bellarine electorate and across the state in regional Victoria. It is going to help with the cost of living. This is an investment into our future, it is investment into people and it is fair. It is a fair deal. That is what Labor governments do - we create fairer societies. I am excited about this regional capped fare. Excuse the pun, but this is going to keep Victorians on track for a better deal.