Wednesday, 18 October 2023

 Sam GROTH (Nepean) (19:01): (381) My adjournment is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for Premier Allan to address the issues and projects that her predecessor failed to deliver for my community on the southern Mornington Peninsula. Although I have only got 3 minutes to deliver my adjournment, I wish I had longer to properly outline how successive Labor governments have ignored, disregarded and let down my community.

I will start with issues close to the Premier’s prior experience in infrastructure, albeit not public transport, but there are plenty of blowouts in this case. It is hard to speak about public transport blowouts in my electorate, because we have little to no public transport at all. However, my community is still suffering under horrendous infrastructure shortfalls from the Rosebud Hospital to Jetty Road. Residents in my community are travelling at times more than 45 minutes for critical health care and navigating dangerous undermaintained roads, including the infamous Jetty Road intersection. The government has failed to invest in the substantive redevelopment of Rosebud Hospital to provide for our local healthcare needs and has refused to invest in that Jetty Road overpass.

Additionally, the government continues to classify the Mornington Peninsula as metropolitan Melbourne for the purposes of its political agenda. In doing this the Allan Labor government continues the Labor tradition of excluding my community from major regional funds and depriving my electorate of capital investment. The peninsula is also being locked out of the future regional tourism and events funds and the Regional Community Sport Development Fund, and I call for these to be included in future funding for the Mornington Peninsula. The $150 million Regional Tourism Investment Fund, as spruiked by the government, provides investment in regional initiatives to help drive the recovery of the tourism and events sector, and the $60 million Regional Community Sport Development Fund – and I do note that the Minister for Community Sport is at the table – focuses on vital funding for community infrastructure, including investment in local sporting facilities. My community has also been blocked from the government’s $150 million Regional Worker Accommodation Fund despite the peninsula being a major contributor to the Victorian tourism economy and being included in the state government’s own regional tourism statistics. Access to these funds would be a game changer for local businesses and workers in Nepean, providing the opportunity to rebuild and strengthen sectors still recovering after COVID.

It is time my community was given access to the same investment, infrastructure and opportunities either as part of the city or included as part of the regions. The action I seek is for Premier Allan to address these issues and deliver on the projects that her predecessor government persistently failed to deliver.