Tuesday, 30 August 2022

 Ms SHING (Eastern Victoria—Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Equality) (11:44): Being out and about in rural and regional Victoria is always a wonderful thing, particularly when it involves getting underway with the expansion of critical infrastructure such as the Bendigo Airport. Last week it was such a delight to join the Speaker from the other place and the Deputy Premier—Maree Edwards and Jacinta Allan—along with government member Lisa Chesters to get this next stage underway and to turn the sod for further investment, bringing the Andrews government’s investment to a total of $9 million since 2017, to enable, facilitate and invest in the expansion of this critical piece of infrastructure.

Qantas has taken up the mantle in delivering flights from Bendigo through to Sydney and other destinations. It is hoped that we can expand that, and this new terminal will be a wonderful starting point for that influx of traffic and making sure that we can see a huge growth in the number of visitors coming to Bendigo and surrounds and also those heading further afield from around that region. We are now looking at an additional $2.5 million return for the economy at the moment in the first year of the project, which will be completed by December next year, growing to an epic $9.5 million by 2030 through increased operations.

What a wonderful thing it is to come together with the mayor of the City of Greater Bendigo, Andrea Metcalf, along with elected representatives and Nicholson Construction, who are in charge of building this particular airport upgrade as well as the logistics precinct—partnerships with local businesses that are making sure that we can deliver the very best of infrastructure to regional Victoria ahead of the mighty Commonwealth Games coming to Victoria in 2026 thanks to our sustained effort and engagement in bringing the world to the best of Victoria and all that we have to offer.