The Victorian Liberals are promising new hybrid trains for commuters in Melbourne’s booming west, as a newly upgraded station at Melton opens today.

If elected in November, the Coalition is promising $1.7 billion for 25 new hybrid diesel-electric trains on the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines.

The lines are currently served by smaller V-Line trains, with local communities waiting for promised electrification of the line to run larger, more frequent Metro services. The state government said it would run higher-capacity V-Line trains on the Melton line from next year, while it finishes investigating electrification.

Mt Atkinson resident Jaksha Shah said residents have long been waiting for the line to be electrified so trains can run more often, and for new train stations to be built in growing suburbs at Mt Atkinson and Thornhill Park. Meanwhile, Infrastructure Victoria said hybrid trains were already operating in some areas of Europe, but that it would not be the best long term solution for Melbourne’s west.

South Australia has become the first state to formally urge the Commonwealth to change a federal law preventing doctors from using telehealth in voluntary assisted dying (VAD), openly defying Prime Minister Albanese.

In a letter to federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, senior ministers in the Malinauskas government have “implored” the Commonwealth to “take immediate action”, arguing the restrictions disadvantage terminally ill people in regional, rural and remote Australia. They explained that a provision in the Commonwealth criminal code was preventing doctors from using telehealth for VAD and forcing patients to travel long distances to attend appointments, with some dying before being able to access the care.

The letter comes just weeks after the ALP national conference endorsed a motion committing Labor to removing telehealth restrictions, despite Ms Rowland — the highest law officer in Australia — voicing strong concerns on the conference floor. This intervention puts the SA government at odds with Albanese, who has expressed personal opposition to changing the law, concerned about the risk of coercion and elder abuse if telehealth replaced compulsory face-to-face consultations.

Some states and territories permit limited use of telehealth in VAD, but the federal code overrides those provisions by prohibiting the use of a “carriage service” to counsel or promote suicide. It means doctors risk $220,000 fines and a criminal record for using phone, email or video to discuss the self-administration of VAD medication.

In advice to industry published on Monday, the office of the eSafety commissioner warned that while smart glasses with cameras, such as Meta’s Ray-Ban, can offer accessibility benefits to low vision or blind people, companies might pit “accessibility benefits against safety and privacy considerations”, and noted there was already a backlash to the technology.

There are already reports of women being filmed without their consent and their interactions with a glasses-wearing influencer posted on social media. The eSafety commission also said many companies were placing responsibility on consumers to use the glasses safely when “asking people to use a product responsibly is not an adequate safety policy”.

eSafety emphasized that the design features should include clear visual indicators when recording audio or video that cannot be disabled or obscured. They should also not be able to identify members of the public and should automatically blur people’s faces where they have not provided informed consent.

The eSafety commissioner currently has no powers to force the companies to make the changes and the federal government is facing pressure to step in as the market for smart glasses grows. The attorney general will separately release an exposure draft for the government’s second round of privacy reforms that will seek to address rules around smart glasses.