Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Of course, Minister, you will not respond to the question: would you close down every Medicare office? Of course you would not. I am sure there is an office in Eden-Monaro, and there should be one in Gorton. The fact is, there is not one in Gorton and there should be. The Easyclaim facility proposed by the Minister for Health and Ageing has failed in any sense to properly attend to the needs of the constituents of my electorate. So I am happy to see it as a complementary service that has failed.

The other failure by this government, of course, has been its silence on the Calder Freeway. In my electorate there are three major ground-level intersections into the Calder Freeway that are causing congestion, fatality and injury. They are three intersections that must be fixed. The Brumby Labor government is willing to commit itself to 50 per cent of the contribution required to have those intersections improved, but, unfortunately, this government has failed to propose, in any way, any support for those intersections. We need support in some way so that there will be fewer casualties and no congestion—not only for my electorate but for the electorates of Calwell and McEwen. I had hoped that the Minister for Small Business and Tourism would have already lent her weight to this debate, but, unfortunately, she has no concern for her people in Gisborne, New Gisborne and Woodend. There has been a failure by this government to respond to the concerns of my electorate and indeed the electorates north of mine and I hope they attend to these concerns as soon as possible. (Time expired)

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