Call that pork-barrelling? Hold my beer, says Jess Wilson

October 1, 2026 — 7:00pm

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It was the bright sunshine that gave the game away.

On the morning that Premier Ben Carroll met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese under grey Melbourne skies to bring forward plans to build a rail line to the airport, Opposition Leader Jess Wilson posted a video committing a future Coalition government to the same thing.

Beneath a sparkling blue sky, Wilson pledged, as part of the airport rail project, to deliver a shiny new train station in Keilor East by 2031 – a mirror promise to the one just made by the premier and PM. Deirdre Chambers, what a coincidence!

As best as we can piece together, it looks as though the Liberal Party caught wind of what Labor was up to and shot its video ahead of time to gazump the policy. The problem is, no one thought to tell the party’s public transport spokesman and resident trainspotter, Matthew Guy, before they posted it.

Had they done so, Guy would have probably been less scornful in........

© The Age