Friday, 28 August 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (15:50): (2768) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Premier. He has called a royal commission into the corruption that has occurred with the Suburban Rail Loop and the problems that have occurred with the corrupt siphoning off of money to a whole range of different groups – to unions, especially the CFMEU, but to others as well. I want to pick up the comments of Deborah Glass, the former Ombudsman, and Robert Redlich, the former IBAC Commissioner. I particularly had a lot to do with Robert Redlich when he was in that position, and I have the highest regard for him. Indeed he is a former Labor man and a former Supreme Court judge. The points that they have made are very reasonable, and I want to draw attention to a couple of these.

They say the terms of reference are strong on one hand but that there are weaknesses in those terms of reference. I want to pick up those points and ask the Premier to fix the terms of reference to make sure that the terms of reference are picking up the best independent expert advice on what is needed. They say they need to examine whether the government created the conditions for this corruption, sidestepping its own planning rules in the pursuit of vote-winning policies. They say:

The terms of reference include examining the role of executive government, which includes ministers and public servants, in its oversight and governance of major construction projects …

and this, whilst not counted out from the terms of reference, is not quite as sharply specified in the terms of reference. They go on:

While this is not specified, we would expect that the executive government responsibility for oversight and governance … should encompass the requirements of a proper business case …

There was not one for the SRL. The former Premier called it an investment case, not a business case. That is what he said on radio – not a business case; an investment case. An investment case, he said, is something you do when you know what you are doing. You are not looking at other options. That is what he said – extraordinary, corrupt.

The point here is the impartial public service advice was bypassed. The transport department did not know about the SRL. They got the surprise, as everyone else did, when the announcement was made. There was an open letter sent by a number of important groups, the Transport Action Group, Michael Buxton, the Public Transport Users Association and Rail Futures, and they pointed to the failure to adhere to statutory planning requirements in developing and approving major projects, cutting corners, costing the public billions and billions of dollars in squandered money and allowing money to be siphoned off corruptly:

Our key concern is that the transport and land use planning process has been captured by political and commercial interests at the expense of the public interest.

They single out unions as part of this too. Glenyys Romanes, who I know and many in this chamber may know, pointed to the problems with the West Gate Tunnel. Michael Buxton said it is important, critical – (Time expired)