Damian Drum (Murray, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my electorate of Murray, Shepparton is the largest regional centre. In fact, it is Victoria's fourth-largest regional centre, and it is home to around 70,000 people. Shepparton is situation 188 kilometres north of Melbourne, which is roughly a two-hour drive. Deputy Speaker, if you want to take the train you are looking at a minimum of 145 minutes, but more often it takes close to four hours on one of the four weekday services.

Bendigo is another regional centre, and it is only 151 kilometres away from Melbourne. It is a different case because there are 20 weekday services and each trip to Melbourne will take as little as 92 minutes.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 10 : 54 to 11 : 27