Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Ballarat car parking

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (22:09): (961) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Regional Development. One thousand: that is how many car parks were promised to Ballarat in 2018. One thousand: that is one, zero, zero, zero. At this point in time we have 149 that have been built; at least that is what the government are claiming. What has actually happened is that it is not 149 that have been built but 149 that have been formalised from existing gravel parking. Now, this is part of a commitment, they say, in order to get to 1000 car parks. What they do not realise is that 275 car parks have been lost due to the construction of the GovHub in Ballarat. At this point in time Ballarat has less car parks in the CBD than it did in 2018 when this commitment was made. The government make a commitment for 1000 car parks and they go backwards in car parking capacity in Ballarat’s CBD. I mean, you could not write it for Utopia. They would be salivating looking at this example, saying, ‘Well, this is just going to be material for our show,’ because that is exactly what it is. It is laughable. The government claimed that there are 400 spots at the Ballarat Base Hospital that are going to service the CBD – not true. You build them at the hospital; they are going to service the hospital. They are too far away from the central business district to actually service small businesses, which was originally the intent of the program. So my question to the government and indeed to the minister is this: when will the 1000 car parks actually be delivered? It is like going and buying a Where’s Wally? book. You try to find where actually Wally is, but it never happens.

David Davis interjected.

Joe McCRACKEN: In which decade? In which century, I am thinking, Mr Davis, because it just looks like nothing is going to happen. We have actually gone backwards in car parking capacity in Ballarat. Thanks so much, government.