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  • 1 year ago
Peter Dutton says the Coalition will scrap $2.2 billion in federal funding for Victoria's Suburban Rail Loop. Mr Dutton says a Coalition government would prioritise the Melbourne Airport Rail Link alongside a future Victorian Liberal government if elected in May. The federal government has previously committed $5 billion to build the rail line to Tullamarine, as well as a further $2 billion in funding to create a new rail hub at Sunshine.

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00:00The opposition leader Peter Dutton has been on a whirlwind tour of Melbourne seats today.
00:07Victoria is a really key state for whoever wants to be the future Prime Minister of Australia.
00:13These haven't been big public events, Peter Dutton hasn't been shaking hands with punters.
00:17These have been small pre-prepared events.
00:20Firstly, this morning we flew from Brisbane to Melbourne where the opposition leader announced
00:25his plan for the Melbourne airport rail link.
00:28That's an extra $1.5 billion that he says the coalition would add to that project.
00:34As well as that, he says a coalition government would take money away from the suburban rail loop.
00:40That means that that project essentially is dead in the water under a Peter Dutton government
00:45and he says that's what voters in the outer suburbs of Melbourne want.
00:50There was an awkward moment earlier in the day at that winery.
00:54We were taken to a beautiful lookout and we were told this was where the rail announcement would be.
01:00We were way out of the area where the Melbourne airport rail link would be,
01:04so one of my journalist colleagues asked Senator Bridget McKenzie why we were in that particular spot
01:10and there was a pretty awkward exchange.
01:12We'll normally see the aeroplanes coming across here as well.
01:15There was quite a few before, must be a little bit of a break for them,
01:18but we'll see Qantas coming back again shortly.
01:21Sorry, the reason we're in the paddock looking that way...
01:24So the press conference, because that's what our advancers have told us to do, that you want it.
01:29So we are here. Obviously there is a press conference when the leader arrives.
01:36Victoria is a really key state if the Liberal Party and the National Party want to pick up some seats.
01:42There are 38 seats in total. Labor holds 24, the Liberal Party just 7.
01:48So there are some seats that the Coalition believe that they can get,
01:51particularly since the electoral redistribution.
01:55Seats like Aston, Chisholm and McEwen.
01:58The seat of Bruce that Peter Dutton spent some time in this afternoon,
02:02speaking to a group of people who were victims of crime.
02:05That is a seat that the Coalition believes that it can pick up.
02:09Peter Dutton then spent this afternoon at a medical research facility,
02:14the Matty Riewalt facility, named after AFL player Nick Riewalt's sister,
02:19the late Matty Riewalt.
02:21He's given $3 million over three years to that facility for the work that it does.
02:27He was asked today about energy, about his gas plan.
02:30Those are the messages that he is going to continue to push in the marginal seats
02:35as this campaign continues.
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