Wednesday, 31 August 2022

 Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) (18:28): (2103) I wish to raise a matter this evening for the attention of—it could be the Minister for Public Transport, or it could be the Minister for Transport Infrastructure. It depends on which way the government is feeling at any given time as to who is responsible for what, I understand. But the situation is that parking is a major issue in the township of Sunbury, or it was until very recently, when the roadworks on one side of Sunbury and the level crossing works in the middle of Sunbury actually pretty much forced everybody to flee the CBD. So there is plenty of parking at the moment, but when things get back to normal—if indeed they ever get back to normal—we know that parking will be a very serious issue once again.

So serious is the issue, in fact, that before the last election the invisible member for Sunbury, Josh Bull, made a commitment to making a substantial injection of parking places at the Sunbury railway station. I would like to ask Mr Bull about this, but it is very hard to find him—very hard to find him indeed. I am hoping that the minister might be able to cut straight to the chase and actually go to where these decisions are made and to fix it, because we do need that extra parking. It is absolutely desperate because there is without doubt a significant financial impact on small businesses in the Sunbury CBD as a result of the lack of parking. Not only has the government not provided the parking that it promised; it has actually cut back on car parking because the level crossing works have taken over one of the main car parks in Sunbury, thereby stopping people from using that area to park so they can go shopping.

It is a diabolical situation whichever way you look at it, and all I am asking the minister to do is to provide the parking that was promised before the last election. We have less than 90 days for the minister to announce that this parking is happening. I do not want another promise; I want the money. We Sunbury people want the money up-front and the project signed off so that we can say that this government has kept its promise. Personally I will not be holding my breath, but I sincerely hope for the good of the traders of Sunbury and indeed the population and community of Sunbury that the minister will make good on the government’s promise.