Preston Market
Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (19:17:117:): (108) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is that the minister protects the Preston Market. I know the minister has been reading through a great deal of material about the market, and I know she is a very regular visitor. She is often up our way, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for the diligent and thoughtful way in which she has approached this important issue for our community. I understand that the minister is now in a position where she is close to being able to make some decisions about the market, and in that respect I specifically ask that she protects the Centreway and its surrounding buildings and keeps them in their current location. We have knocked on hundreds of doors around the market, and that is what has clearly emerged from our community. What people want to be able to do is walk down the Centreway or walk through the deli or maybe the seafood section and experience the great, vibrant, multicultural, affordable market that they can experience today. I know that is important to me. I know it is also important to the member for Northcote and the member for Pascoe Vale – good Labor members who know their multicultural communities very well and of course know the market well through their own Greek and Italian families.
That is not the same, I should be clear, as saying that nothing can ever change at the market. We are not asking the minister to build a new Sovereign Hill of sorts where everything is just frozen in place for all time. There is a strong case for making the market more environmentally sensitive. There is a strong case for improving some aspects of its operations, its sewerage system and some of the other essential services upon which the traders rely, and there is a case for making better use of the whole site. The Save the Preston Market group have put forward a proposal where some of the current car parks are used for mid-rise buildings, and if that were done thoughtfully and incrementally, we could imagine that making the market an even better place. But most fundamentally, I am rising today to ask that any such upgrades keep the heart of the market as it currently is, so as people go there and they get their fresh pasta, their Asian groceries or whatever they might get on a Saturday morning, we would like to make sure that any upgrades enhance or support that part of the market rather than displacing or destroying it. I thank the minister for her consideration of this important issue for our community.