Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Polwarth electorate funding

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (12:32): My statement today involves my community of Polwarth’s request to get a fair go in this year’s budget from the state government. As we know and as has been variously reported, $23 billion has been wasted on overblown projects here in Melbourne, and the good people of country Victoria, the people of Polwarth, want to know that this upcoming budget they are going to get a fair crack at the largesse that this government continually wastes in Melbourne.

These are some of the issues that the people of Polwarth are wanting to know. They want to know that the Victorian Blue Ocean Safety Skills Centre at Apollo Bay is going to be funded. That community has worked very hard putting the project together for that. People in Torquay, for example, want to know that their community hub planned down at the footy ground to look after the Lions and the men’s shed is going to get a fair share. Colac Area Health is the main health support service, providing a whole range of services, but has an old, out-of-date urgent care centre. It needs a refurb. We have got Barwon Water—all that water, literally thousands of megalitres, going out to sea. That water can be re-used. We need a feasibility study to look at how that water that is currently going out to Port Phillip Bay can be better used across our region. And of course the Birregurra footy club have been waiting a very long time to get the support they need to rebuild a very, very substandard footy clubroom for both men and women to play Aussie rules and netball.