Wednesday, 12 November 2025

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (19:10): (1393) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport. The action I seek is for the minister to update me on the rollout and timeframes for the new 886 Mornington to Hastings bus service and the 784 and 785 route upgrades, including services to Beleura and Peninsula Grange retirement villages, and on whether she will listen to the significant concerns of Prince Street residents, who have overwhelmingly indicated that they support buses but not on their street for a whole range of reasons.

First, I have called for a number of years for the bus between Mornington and Hastings. During the 2022 election campaign the Liberals and Nationals committed to that bus service. That was not matched by Labor at the time, but with significant pressure on them since, they have now committed to delivering and to funding the Mornington to Hastings bus service. We have indications now that they will roll that out in July or August next year, so I am asking this Labor government to keep to their promise to deliver this service.

In addition to this, for 10 years or more retirement village residents at Peninsula Grange and Beleura retirement villages have called for a bus – any bus – to come to unused bus stops outside of their retirement villages. There are also unused bus stops outside of St Macartan’s Parish Primary School, Mornington holiday park, Racecourse Grange Aged Care and Mornington Racecourse. It is not good at all that we have a community of over 2000 residents with bus stops but no buses. So after much advocacy this government have actually confirmed that as part of the Mornington to Hastings bus route they will now realign services 784 and 785 to service these unused bus stops. This is a great thing for our community, but I am calling for the government to do this properly, and to do this properly they need to get the route right.

I have been contacted by many, many residents along Prince Street in Mornington who will be impacted by the new route for the 784 going down their street. It is a street that has little to no disability access. It has no footpaths. It has a proposed bus stop that would be right outside a fire mains and fire pit. They received zero consultation. They received no direct mail. The first they found out about this was in the last couple of weeks. There are nearby alternative routes that the buses can go down. These residents support buses. They support the 784 and 785 route upgrades and the Mornington to Hastings bus route, but these routes must be done properly. I call on the minister to confirm these upgrades, to confirm these timeframes and to consult properly with Prince Street residents.