Thursday, 24 March 2022

Mornington Peninsula metropolitan designation

Mr BURGESS (Hastings) (09:47): Last week, in the lead-up to the 28 March release of the Mornington PeninsulaEconomic Disadvantage Report, the Leader of the Opposition summarised the challenges confronting the Mornington Peninsula by saying that the peninsula has all of the negatives that come with metropolitan status but none of the benefits. The report commissioned by the Committee for Mornington Peninsula found that a change to a regional designation would unlock funding opportunities to improve transport and infrastructure, health and education, community and recreation.

Over the last several years Mornington Peninsula residents and businesses have been calling on the Andrews Labor government to urgently release the Mornington Peninsula shire from inclusion in metropolitan Melbourne and the COVID lockdowns that were applied to it. Throughout the pandemic and despite the entirely different conditions it was experiencing, the Mornington Peninsula was subjected to the same harsh restrictions metropolitan Melbourne was suffering under. Other areas similarly regional in nature to the Mornington Peninsula, and in some instances closer geographically to the city, continued to enjoy the far greater freedoms of regional designation.

The opposition leader said it was unfair to burden the peninsula with the higher taxes and fees that come with being part of metro Melbourne. The member for Nepean made claims in this house during the last sitting that changing the Mornington Peninsula’s designation from metro to regional would endanger its green wedge. In response, the opposition leader said the Mornington Peninsula is not metropolitan and should not be classed as such. The argument that the metro classification is needed to protect the green wedge just does not stack up.