Mornington Peninsula bus services
Paul MERCURIO (Hastings) (10:44): As I said, it was a tough budget, but I am very happy and excited to say there was definitely a small nugget of joy in there for my electorate. In the budget delivered last year my electorate received funding so that planning for a cross-peninsula bus service could be undertaken. That preliminary planning has been done, and as a result of that we received further funding in this budget that will go towards infrastructure for the cross-peninsula bus service. Later this year we will begin consultation with all of the stakeholders within the community to understand the community’s needs regarding the bus service and to determine things like timetable frequency, stops and of course the route it will take. This is absolutely fantastic news for the community and brings us another step closer to getting the bus from Hastings to Mornington in 25 to 30 minutes instead of the 2½ hours it sometimes takes.