Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise again in this place to highlight the issue of traffic congestion in Melbourne. Indeed, the latest data shows that traffic congestion has risen by four per cent in the past year alone. The latest data also shows that workers are spending an average of 500 hours commuting each year and, indeed, are stuck in gridlock for an extra 34 minutes a day. Those who traverse the whole of Melbourne, from east to west, for example, are spending an average of 1,000 hours a year commuting. This of course reflects the population growth of Melbourne and Victoria. In Victoria, 86.7 per cent of people moving to the state from overseas settle in Melbourne. On current projections the population of Victoria will double from approximately five million people now to 10 million people over the next 40 years, eight million of which will reside in Melbourne. Indeed, we have seen a 600 per cent increase in the passenger kilometres travelled in Melbourne since 1945, but only a 330 per cent increase in the population. So the bottom line is that the development of infrastructure in Victoria has not kept up. That is why vital links like the East West Link and the North East Link need to be built and built quickly.