Thursday, 3 August 2023

Wallan road infrastructure

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:51): (373) I am seeking the action of the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure to find out and seek clarification on what is happening with the $50 million funded federally to go towards the Wallan diamond ramps that are currently captured in Labor’s infrastructure review, now overdue and slated for cuts. For what seems like a decade the Wallan diamond has been the subject of much political debate in Wallan but long promised, never delivered – and many people believe it will never be built. The Labor Party has taken this commitment to countless elections, and the recently handed down state budget confirms that the Labor state government has not even begun planning works, which will not be completed until sometime in 2024. Labor has not even looked at the project yet.

There has been a lot of political spin about this project, which needs to be called out. Recently federal Labor member for McEwen Rob Mitchell said:

The inaction of the former Liberal government held up this project for way too long …

in advertising the Major Road Projects Victoria consultation. What he is talking about is that $50 million committed by the coalition. At the time in 2020 he even took credit for that $50 million, saying he drove the minister for infrastructure to see Watson Street in his own car.

So I seek the action of the minister to clarify how possibly this project could be the former federal government’s fault when federal Labor have put the funding on hold. The funding was always threshold based and actually required the state government to get off its backside and upgrade Watson Street before the money for the diamond could be delivered – and we know from the state budget just handed down in May that the state government has not even begun planning works yet. Rob Mitchell wants us to believe he is delivering the project despite the federal Labor government not spending a single cent, just like he secured the funding which he is now not delivering. He has always said that we need a Labor government in Canberra and in Spring Street to get it done, but now the federal government in Canberra is actually not delivering any money towards the project.

This project needs both state and federal funding to get it done. With a Labor government in Canberra and in Spring Street the time for excuses and spin is over. I seek the action of the minister to advise what funding the federal Labor government is actually contributing to this project. And if the $50 million is cut, will the minister actually advocate for Victoria and advocate for that money to be kept in Wallan – or are they just Labor mates in Canberra? Not too long ago, at the 2019 election, this state government and the Treasurer spent millions of dollars on the Our Fair Share campaign – millions of dollars of taxpayers money. Will the minister commit to funding a similar campaign against her federal Labor mates to keep that money for infrastructure in Victoria, where it belongs?