Thursday, 19 February 2026

 Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:08): As the minister told the house yesterday, on the weekend I had the pleasure of joining Minister Shing at Clarke Reserve in Elwood to announce the 97 parks across Victoria being upgraded or introduced as new green spaces through Pick My Park. This is a great community-led initiative where ideas submitted by the community for the community are eligible for support. We talked about Clarke Reserve. I want to go through some of the other parks in Southern Metro that are getting support. Burnett Gray reserve in Ripponlea, which is the only playground in the suburb of Ripponlea, are getting brand new equipment. Alexandra Street in St Kilda, which is currently basically car parking, will be transformed into a new green corridor with tree canopy and new planting. The middle of the Caulfield Racecourse, which is a public reserve, will add seating and new paths to encourage the community to make better use of that public space. In Willis Street in Hampton just near the station, where there is a big new housing development that has gone in, we are creating a new pocket park at the old Scout hall with lawn and garden beds. In Federal reserve in Port Melbourne a new fenced area will transform that into a much safer dog park. St Kilda Botanical Gardens are getting an upgrade to their play space with new nature play and a new barbecue. We are helping the expansion of the Pakington Street Reserve in St Kilda. There are more facilities in Prahran, Cheltenham, Toorak and Camberwell. I am running out of time, this program is so good.