Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Mordialloc electorate transport infrastructure

Mr RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:10): (1868) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and the action I seek is for the minister to come out to the electorate of Mordialloc and see the progress of the Mordialloc Freeway project, a substantial infrastructure investment in our community which is well underway, and to meet with some of the incredible workers who are building the Mordialloc Freeway. This project has been decades in the making. It was a commitment in previous budgets of the Andrews Labor government. Going from a bypass to a freeway, this 9-kilometre road will transform how we get around our community.

It is an action-packed year down our way. Down in our patch it is all happening. We have got the Mordialloc Freeway underway and level crossings underway. In May the occupation starts at Mentone and Cheltenham—a 53-day occupation and a significant amount of work. Our local community has dealt with a lot of disruptions with the Carrum level crossing removal. We will front up again. We will give people a lot of notice when we get underway with that. We will let people know about those changes to road infrastructure and the construction impacts when we get underway with the Mordialloc Freeway. And then of course there are the Bonbeach, Chelsea and Edithvale level crossing removals—heavy occupation in September 2021. It is an action-packed 18 months, and it is an absolute excitement, joy and pleasure in our patch to see the transformation.

This is not only a once-in-a-generation but a once-in-a-hundred-year chance to make our community better for the future. When you think about the Mordialloc Freeway, its iteration back in the 1970s and where we find ourselves today, some 3.2 million tonnes of soil have been moved out and 400 jobs are underway and supported through this process. When I was out there when we did the smoking ceremony to recognise the connection to land of our Indigenous people, it was such a humbling and incredible experience, and then to also see veterans in construction uniforms was something that I was really proud to see. I know the now Minister for Corrections had a substantial role in that as well; to see veterans getting that chance on major infrastructure projects was a source of great pride when he was Minister for Industry and Employment. It makes a difference in lives and gives people that opportunity to do more as they go through and transition into civilian life.

So the Mordialloc Freeway is up and about. We are up and about down in the Mordialloc electorate as we anticipate this incredible project and the transformational benefits it will have, and I cannot wait to have the transport minister out to visit my patch and see the progress getting underway.