MILDURA’S 2022 Youth Parliament Team did us proud.
Tahiba Mirzaee, Trey Peirce, Turishaa Suresh, Aimee Ablett and Rory Peterson went to Spring Street last month, demanding the return of Mildura’s passenger trains.
They introduced the Mildura Passenger Train Restoration 2022 Bill to the YMCA Youth Parliament Legislative Assembly and made a big impact.
The arguments for the return of our passenger train were compelling if not self-evident.
Mildura might have an airport, but a Qantas flight is not public transport, it’s private transport. And an airport at Mildura is not much help if you live in Ouyen or Birchip.
A train service to Mildura might not make money, but neither does any other public passenger train service in the State.
State schools, police stations, fire stations and public hospitals don’t make money. But when it comes to essential public services, it’s not a matter of cost, but value.
The public services a region receives are a direct reflection of the value the Government places in it. If the Government valued us like it values the other nine major regional cities, we would have a train.
Our isolation means that a passenger train service to Mildura would cost more to run than a service to Wodonga or Warrnambool, but we are Victorians too.
We farmed a desert and turned it into a multi-billion-dollar economic powerhouse. We work our guts out and pay our tax. The Government owes us a train.
The fact we have been denied it for almost 30 years is a scandal.
Our Youth Parliament team won two awards for the level of media coverage and engagement across the Youth Parliament program.
Their bill passed with almost unanimous support. Participants from every part of the State intuitively understood the unfairness.
After the debate, the rival debate team approached our kids to say, “Sorry we had to argue against it. We agree with you.”
I commend our young people for their outstanding work. They are confirmation to the Government that this issue is never going away. Each generation will just become more determined.
