Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (19:00): (1559) My issue is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and I ask her to write to the City of Manningham and advise the City of Manningham why she did not take up their suggestions in relation to improving the Doncaster park-and-ride. The Bulleen park-and-ride has been built, and it is open. It has got 370 spaces. The Doncaster park-and-ride is being rebuilt currently for $25 million. It will have 435 spaces, but it replaces an existing park-and-ride facility that had 428 spaces. The state government is spending $25 million, closing local roads, permanently impacting people’s ability to get in and out of their driveways, reducing streets from two lane to one lane and making local people drive not 20 metres back out onto Doncaster Road but a large loop of nearly half a kilometre to get out of their driveways – all of this to put in place a park-and-ride which will add seven extra spaces. When Minister Shing and local upper house MP Shaun Leane were seen by the City of Manningham, they were advised directly that this is not value for money. If you were going to do something at this site, I am advised that the council said it needs to be much larger, because there is going to be much greater demand.

Bulleen park-and-ride, which I use every day and indeed will use tonight when I conclude my adjournment, is full by 7:30 in the morning because it is too small. Doncaster park-and-ride, at 435 ‍spaces, will also be full by 7:30 am and thus useless, and what we will see is local people having their streets flooded by cars all over again, which is what the park-and-ride was meant to eliminate. Well, it is not going to eliminate it, because it is not big enough. If the government was going to spend $25 million, as the City of Manningham had lobbied for, with no commercial facilities on the site – for instance, any kind of coffee cart or commercial facilities – with nothing to value-add to the site, then the government should have done more to it if spending that amount of money. The council advised them to do it. I am asking the minister tonight to explain her government’s actions to the Manningham City Council as to why they did not adopt the council’s point of view and proposal to do more on this site rather than spend $25 million of taxpayers money to add an extra net seven car spaces.