Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is rare to hear the member for Braddon waxing lyrical about his favourite place, Tasmania, and all of the parts of Tasmania that now have bike paths. You are looking at the former chairman of the Pakenham Shire Council bike path committee. Around 26 years ago, my first major responsibility at the Pakenham Shire Council was to take on the role of the chairman of the Pakenham bike path committee. Like the member for Braddon, we had a grand vision for our community and cycling into the future. We put that down on paper. There was to be a ridge line that went from Pakenham all the way to Upper Pakenham. There was going to be a shared pathway that went from Pakenham. You would be able to ride up there and go all the way to the pony club at Upper Pakenham. This was going to be the most glorious ride.

Then a developer came along and he decided that he was going to put houses on the land that we were going to put our path on. We took it to VCAT and we lost. That ridge line now, instead of having a bike way, shared footpaths and a beautiful opportunity for people to interact from the hills to the town, now has houses and no access for bikes to Upper Pakenham. They only way that we will be able to do it in the future is to build the path on the side of a road, with half the beauty that it would have had. We lost the fight. So I learnt early that in politics you do lose some times.

I congratulate Mr Ripoll, the member for Oxley, for his foresight in bringing this motion before the House. I was a young boy in Koo Wee Rup—not Cooee in Tasmania but Koo Wee Rup in Victoria. We had open drains and we had a horse named Darkie who pulled a cart and moved forward every 10 foot through the voices of the men working with the cart. One of those men was Percy Osborne. I only knew him as Percy. He looked after Darkie the horse. The council depot was just down from our place. It was fairly exciting to be out there with Darkie and Percy Osborne. As a young guy, I did not know who Percy Osborne was. This guy on the cart cleaning the drains was a great bike rider who rode with Sir Hubert Opperman. It was only explained to me as the years went on just how important this man was who lived in Koo Wee Rup with me.

What have we done in our electorates? We have heard all about the joys of bike riding from all the experts who have been here today. I am surprised that the member for Braddon did not come in in Lycra today to make a real presentation. We have now fantastic rail trails from Leongatha to Foster. These are great trips. They include: Wonthaggi to Kilcunda, Mirboo North to Boolarra, Warragul to Yarragon and Warragul to Drouin, a brand new path that the state government put in as part of the infrastructure program. Now there is a great path that you can walk or cycle down all the way fro Warragul to Drouin. We need some money from the government for a double road to go right through there, but we have this most magnificent bike path. It is very important to us.

What can I shout about? I can shout about Kathy Watt because she comes from our area and I am a very close friend of her mother. She is an important person. We have two local sporting champions. The McMillan winners were Stuart Smith from Leongatha and Brenton Jones, a mountain biker from Jindivick. Also in my electorate there are many people over 55, a lot more than in most electorates. Many of them are taking up cycling as recreation. But it is quiet recreation.

It does not matter where you travel today, you will see cyclists. I like to drive to Queensland once a year to see my sister. Wherever you go on the road north, whether you go up the Newell Highway or you go up Highway 1, you will see groups of people of every age having their breakfast meeting after a ride or taking their morning activity on a bike. Caloundra is a favourite place of mine—not that it beats anywhere in Tasmania—and in Caloundra I would see dozens and dozens and dozens of people on their bikes. I have been having a break up there and I saw them undertaking this activity.

Cycling is growing out of all proportion across the whole of Gippsland. From the descriptions I have heard today, we are not on our own in Gippsland. Obviously this is happening right across the nation. It is good for Australia. It is a sporting area where we punch above our weight, always have and always will.

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