Wednesday, 31 August 2022

 Ms VAGHELA (Western Metropolitan) (18:42): (2108) My adjournment matter is directed to the Honourable Jacinta Allan MP for the minister’s portfolio responsibility of transport infrastructure. The action I seek is for the minister to meet with the mayor of Brimbank City Council to provide clarity around the Labor government’s plans for the Sunshine precinct, which were announced almost four years ago in 2018 but have so far received no funding commitments. With adequate state government investment, the Sunshine precinct will have benefits for all of Melbourne’s west as well as residents in Victoria’s major regional centres such as Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. This investment could shift generational disadvantage and has the potential to generate tens of thousands of jobs and up to $8 billion in new investment and economic activity in the area over the next 30 years.

The Sunshine precinct has the existing infrastructure, services and land capacity to accommodate a huge increase in jobs. Its areas for employment growth include professional office jobs, health, education, government and legal services as well as new opportunities with hospitality, tourism and advanced manufacturing. And with the existing Victoria University campuses in Sunshine and St Albans as well as the University of Melbourne located at the Sunshine Hospital, the greater Sunshine area has a strong foundation to expand and grow its tertiary offering.

I would like to remind the Labor government of its commitment in November 2018, when the Honourable Minister Jacinta Allan MP as the Victorian transport minister at the time stated that there would need to be a significant redevelopment of the Sunshine area and that it would become another Southern Cross station. Four years on, as we approach the 2022 Victorian elections and we are less than 90 days out, all we have seen from the Labor government to date on this matter is an opportunity statement and a consultation process on nine key project ideas. I understand that the Brimbank City Council have been advised that the Labor government is fully committed to the Sunshine super-hub and to the vision set out in the Sunshine precinct opportunity statement. I am advised that in May this year the Brimbank City Council were also informed that a draft Sunshine station master plan is expected to be available for public consultation in the coming months.

We are almost in September 2022, and I am advised that the Brimbank City Council are yet to see a draft of the Sunshine station master plan. The residents of Brimbank and Melbourne’s west have waited long enough for the area to be transformed, and it is about time they were given a firm funding commitment on the Sunshine precinct, not just a repetition of unbacked promises before an election similar to that of 2018.