Parkdale level crossing removals
Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (16:51): I am really happy to announce to the house that Parkdale is level crossing free. Not since Parkdale station came to our community in 1919 have we seen such excitement and such aspiration and hope in our local community. We have seen 20,000 vehicles move through this precinct on average each and every day, and it was an Andrews and an Allan Labor government that committed to making these level crossings a thing of the past. It has been a challenging time for our community with the destruction and the impacts that have gone on for many months, but true Parkdale, Mentone and Mordialloc spirit is fronting up each and every day and supporting our wonderful communities and shopping strips and the aspiration and hope and the real connection that we see in communities like no other. So we give a big shout-out to our community for their patience and resilience during this time and to the traders that are going to have a more accessible, more inclusive and, importantly, safer precinct. Just to be down there and to thank the workers – the hundreds of workers – that have been working around the clock to make this happen; to see the food that they are putting on the table from the work that they are doing; to see the back-to-back shifts 12 hours at a time and the money that they are spending in our patch supporting our businesses during these works – we really appreciate the work and service that they provide, because this will have generational significance. We have seen the tragic impacts of loss of life on level crossings. We saw that many years ago at Warrigal Road, and thankfully now no-one has to take a deep breath while crossing as a pedestrian, on their bike or in a car. The level crossings are gone from Parkdale, and the station opens soon.