Thursday, 5 October 2023

North-Eastern Metropolitan Region

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:48): (447) My constituency question today is for the new Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. I think it was last Monday that Mr McGowan and I visited Manningham City Council and we met with both the CEO and the mayor. We wanted to talk with them – or rather, they wanted to talk with us – about the North East Link. I personally think the North East Link is a very good project. I would have had the route go slightly differently, but nonetheless it is a really good project that will ultimately deliver benefit for my constituents. Nonetheless, in the process of constructing the North East Link – which is of course billions and billions of dollars over budget – we need to listen to and deal with the concerns of local people. What we heard from the CEO and also the mayor the other day was that at the moment many locals are concerned that they are bringing forward reasonable issues but they are not getting a hearing, either from the government or from the North East Link Program. They had written to the previous minister, hence I will put it to the new minister that they would like some form of independent mechanism in order to be able to deal with their concerns and issues regarding the project. The action that I seek is for the minister to come back on that matter that has been previously put to the former minister.