Press Conference - Altona Meadows, Melbourne

TIM WATTS [FEDERAL MEMBER FOR GELLIBRAND]: Well, good morning. It's a pleasure to be here in Altona Meadows, where I'm joined by the Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Catherine King, my colleague, the State Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Gabrielle Williams, and the State Member for Point Cook, Matt Hilakari.

My constituents have been stuck in traffic for too long. The growing suburbs of Melbourne's west need growing infrastructure investments to match. But after a decade of neglect by the former coalition governments, we've been waiting for action. The Albanese Government is acting. Just in the last month, you've seen $2 billion investment in the Sunshine train station. You’ve seen a billion-dollar investment in the Western Highway, and we've seen another billion-dollar Suburban Roads Blitz. And that's why we're here today, announcing duplication funding for Central Avenue and a business case for duplication works on Point Cook Road.

I'm very happy to hand over to the Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Catherine King, to talk a little bit about this very important transport infrastructure investment for Melbourne's west.

CATHERINE KING [MINISTER]: Thanks very much, Tim, and it's great to be here at Altona Meadows alongside Gab Williams, the State Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, and of course Matt Hilakari. And we're here in Tim's magnificent electorate.

A billion dollars is being directed to [the] Suburban Road Blitz. We know that, particularly in our growing suburbs where we've seen hundreds of houses develop, that there are significant choke points occurring in our network, particularly getting people to work, getting people home from work, and getting on to our major highways. And the focus of the Suburban Roads Blitz is really about trying to unlock some of those choke points so that people can move about our suburbs more freely, and also give people back the opportunity to get home from work safely and quickly.

So, today, we're announcing over $58.5 million here in this part of the world. It is- already the Victorian Government has committed over $70 million to fix and sort the intersection out here. The money that the federal government is putting in will duplicate Central Avenue, bringing that part of the road in, and then do some planning work for the Point Cook Road for the next part of this, really unlocking this intersection. As you can see behind us, there's multiple roads all coming into the roundabout, coming off the freeway in the way in which it is. And when we're in peak hour, the traffic is backed up along Central Avenue and along Point Cook Road for quite some time. Thousands of residents live in both Point Cook and in Altona Meadows, and this really is the area that they come into. So, it's a delight to work with the Victorian Government to really understand where these choke points in our road network are, and to work together to actually unlock and build on the road network that already the Victorian Government is substantially investing in.

I'll hand over to Gab. I think Matt's got a few words to say and then we'll take some questions.

GABRIELLE WILLIAMS [VIC MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE]: Thank you, Minister King. And we have wonderful advocacy out here in Melbourne's west who are talking to us every day about the congestion issues, the huge population growth, and the demand for road projects and a range of public transport projects as well to make sure that we are adequately meeting that demand and also giving Victorians a good quality of life. People love Melbourne's west. They want to live in Melbourne's west, and we want to make it easy to live in Melbourne's west. As Catherine has already outlined, the state government has already invested $79 million into the upgrade of the intersection behind us here, transforming that roundabout into a signalised intersection, and also delivering, as a part of that, an extra outbound lane that connects to that intersection, as well as some pedestrian crossings and safety treatments that make that intersection safer but also make it flow better.

This announcement today is a great compliment to that work that will soon begin because it, of course, is about duplicating this section of road that we're on right now, Central Avenue, and also planning for the next stage of work, stage three, if you like, of Point Cook Road, that section between Jamieson Way and Dunnings Road. This is a three-part package that is about improving traffic flows, reducing travel times, and giving more options for people in Melbourne's west to get to where they need to go and to get there more quickly. This is, of course, a part of the $1.2 billion suburban road splits that the federal government have been a partner with the state government in delivering, with a focus on meeting the needs of our growing communities and making sure that we are keeping pace with that growth, not only for the here and now, but for generations to come.

It is great to have a partner in Canberra, can I say. For the best part of a decade, Victoria has been short-changed by successive Liberal-National coalition governments, who have short-changed Victoria to the tune of billions and, quite frankly, left the state government carrying the can to deliver the projects that we know Victorians need. So I can't tell you how great it is to finally have a partner in Canberra who not only knows where Victoria is on the map, but also knows who we are and what we need and is prepared to partner with us to deliver upon that. So thank you to Minister King and the federal government for partnering with us on this particular project. Thank you for our western MPs, state and federal, who bang on our doors every day to bring these challenges to us and help us find the solutions in partnership with their communities. Matt? Thank you.

MATHEW HILAKARI [STATE MEMBER FOR POINT COOK]: Rain or shine, federally Labor and Vic Labor turn up for the western suburbs in a way that the coalition government for ten years ignored us. They don't even know where we are on the map. And I should say, and I thank Tim Watts, because for the residents of Point Cook, Altona Meadows and Seabrook, you have a determined advocate in Canberra, somebody who delivers in Melbourne on this project that delivers to Point Cook Road, that talks about the next steps for Point Cook Road and delivers on Central Avenue. So thank you to the advocacy. Thank you for now, the delivery of the federal government on this great partnership in Melbourne's west.

JOURNALIST: Maybe one for Minister King or [indistinct]. Do you have an understanding of how many minutes these works will shave off?

CATHERINE KING: I reckon Matt- Matt probably has studied this more than- Matt and Tim as locals.

MATHEW HILAKARI: When we met with the engineers initially, I was extremely comforted because one of them lived in Point Cook, so he knew exactly the challenges of this area and we said we want to do it once and we want to do it properly. My understanding is we'll be shaving off five minutes for people heading out of Point Cook and onto the freeway, and that is for 28,000 traffic movements every day.

JOURNALIST: You’ve spoken a bit about population growth in this part of Melbourne. How will this infrastructure hold up with that population?

CATHERINE KING: Well, you were just talking about this before, Tim.

TIM WATTS: Look, just to give you a scale- indication of the scale of the population growth we've seen out here in Melbourne's west, go back to the turn of the century. Less than 2,000 people lived in Point Cook. Today it's around 70,000 people live there and forecast to grow to 85,000 in the coming decade. Now, what that means is that governments need to match population growth with infrastructure investment. And that's exactly what we're doing here jointly with the federal and state governments, making the infrastructure investments we needed now for this infrastructure at this intersection, but also undertaking the business case and the planning works for further infrastructure investments needed for Point Cook Road in the future.

JOURNALIST: And just briefly with Minister Williams on another matter. West Gate Tunnel, are you seeking additional funds to get the project completed on time?

GABRIELLE WILLIAMS: Yeah. Look, it's worth noting that of course, the West Gate Tunnel project is a public private partnership that was brought to the government via Transurban. So the matters that have been reported are effectively contractual matters between Transurban and its contractors that will need to be resolved through the terms of that contract.

JOURNALIST: Do you foresee any additional budget blow-outs or delays on that project?

GABRIELLE WILLIAMS: Look, at this stage, there's been no claims made for the state. It is a matter that sits between Transurban and its contractors as part of the contractual arrangements struck between those parties. And look, the project itself is on track to open later this year. We are in absolutely no doubt about how important that project is to Victorians. Nine thousand trucks off local roads, reduced commute times for people in Melbourne's west and offering more ways to get around. And we know how important that is when we're looking to cater for fast growing communities.

JOURNALIST: Do you have a month that you're looking to open?

GABRIELLE WILLIAMS: We will open later this year and work is very much nearing completion and has been clearly going at pace, particularly in recent months, and we're very excited to be able to turn on the West Gate Tunnel and deliver its benefits to residents of Melbourne's west. And keeping in mind it delivers about a 20-minute time saving for somebody living in, say, Werribee. A return trip to the city 20 minutes faster than it was. These are incredibly important future proofing projects for our state to make sure that we can continue to deliver a good quality of life for people who live in Melbourne's outer areas. And that's what the West Gate Tunnel represents.

JOURNALIST: Thank you all.

GABRIELLE WILLIAMS: Thank you.

JOURNALIST: Appreciate that. Thank you.