Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Last weekend there was a community celebration on EastLink, a piece of infrastructure that links our two communities. By all accounts it was a wonderful day and a great credit to those who constructed that magnificent piece of infrastructure. The story about it, though, is a little bit different. You will all remember that one of the first things that I was involved with, along with other colleagues, over a decade ago when I came to this place was making the case for the Scoresby Bypass, a project that was so crucially needed and so essential to our communities. Madam Deputy Speaker Burke, I recall some of your predecessors being very active about that project.

We were upbeat that the community support meant that the then attitude of the state government that it was unnecessary would be overturned, and there was a sigh of relief amongst the eastern and south-eastern communities of Melbourne. We remember that the argument being run by the state government was that a hotch-potch of upgrades of existing road infrastructure, like putting stents in the transport arterial network servicing our community, would be enough. We all knew that that was not going to be enough. In successfully arguing that case we saw the state government of Victoria get on board.

And who could forget Premier Bracks? After all the concern that there was a secret plan to impose tolls, we sensed this was coming. Premier Bracks in the lead-up to an election wrote to everybody in my electorate saying: ‘Dear Dunkley resident’—or whatever the state electorate was where that person was living—‘rest assured there will be no tolls on the Scoresby Freeway. This is my solemn promise.’ That did not last very long, did it? We now know that, of all the metropolitan communities in Victoria and around greater Melbourne, the only ones paying to use the arterial ring-road are those in the east and the south-east. Shame on Labor for such a blatantly misleading exercise with purely political motives that has let down my community dramatically.

We then got to the point about the traffic impacts of that down at Frankston, where the freeway stops. We argued that there would be a 25 per cent increase in traffic, but, no, that would not be the case at all! We now know that the traffic modelling that is available confirms our concerns. We were pointing to the need for a bypass. Again state Labor in Victoria said there was no need for a bypass: ‘We will come up with a little scheme that will relieve the pressure at that intersection.’ Who can forget the press release issued by the then Minister for Public Transport, wholeheartedly supported by the local state Labor members of parliament, saying that there would be some treatment? Let me read it:

A re-elected Bracks Government would commit $20 million to improve traffic in and around Frankston by upgrading the Cranbourne-Frankston Road/Moorooduc Road intersection ...

It talked about the terrible casualty crash rate and the unacceptable delays in traffic. We were going to get a grade-separated turning lane. We are a bit over a week away from the opening of EastLink, but all we have to show for that transport intersection work is this press release. This press release is dated 30 October 2006. Shame on the state Labor government. It needs to speak up for our community. (Time expired)

See this speech in context