Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Who would have thought that there would be such excitement in this chamber to hear about the Riviera of Melbourne, down at Dunkley, the Mornington Peninsula. This is why people are there, they know it is the place to be. There is a reason every season to be a part of the Greater Frankston-Mornington Peninsula community. That is why people are there. That is why so many are wanting to be part of the community that I have really enjoyed representing for so many years. We are on the cusp, though, of a chance to do something quite catalytic, quite transformational.

Colleagues in this House and my community would know, as I have spoken before, about the $63 million that the state government is putting in to renovate the Frankston railway station. There is a need to renovate the station, but we are at a pivotal point where we either tart up the railway station or we seize the opportunity for transformational change in our city. I have made the case time and time again that we should do the latter. Let us not miss this opportunity where there is capital investment happening, where there is a Commonwealth program that can be a great ally for transformational projects, where the Chisholm TAFE campus is also having funding injected into it and where the Frankston Hospital—as it continues to expand and meet growing population demand and a growing complexity of cases—is looking for its next instalment in its capital works program.

We know that we also have a vision for our city as the Fremantle of the east coast, a learning hub where we have academic resources. I mentioned Chisholm TAFE but there is also Monash University's Peninsula campus. The campus was on the cusp of closing until, with the support of the then education minister, now the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Julie Bishop, and me, we were able to bring new course offerings to the campus: physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. That was a celebration 10 years ago that we remembered last week as we realised what a transformational change that had made for our community.

But now is a chance to take it to the next step. Why would you miss the opportunity when there are all of these moving parts, a real, genuine prospect for a catalytic transformation in our city and say simply, 'No, we are going to miss that opportunity because it is just a transport project.' Sadly, that is what the state Labor government has decided. I have gone to them and mapped out the many opportunities we have to synchronise effort, innovation and investment in our city, to really set it up for its future. Instead the answer I got back was: 'Bruce, don’t you know anything? It's just a project.' That is my point; it should not be just a project. It is too significant an opportunity simply to say it is a one-off tart-up renovation of Frankston railway station, when we can do something much more meaningful for our community.

It is not like we have not addressed this issue before. I looked at some of the historical material and saw that when Mr Meagher was the state member for Frankston in 1971 he announced that there would be a transformation of the Frankston railway station to bring commercial investment, new opportunities, life and vitality to this important precinct of the commercial centre of our city. It did not materialise. In the eighties there was a Reading Cinema project where they were going to build cinemas over the railway station and integrate it with other retail opportunities and have more car parking available for those who were choosing the Frankston line to commute to Melbourne. Well, that did not materialise either.

Here we are and I would like to think it will be third time lucky, but instead we have this state government not wanting to realise that it can lift its ambitions and see greater possibilities for our city. That is what the Frankston City Council want. That is what the Frankston business network wants. Even in this building as people come to see me about other things, they make the point: 'Bruce, you understand about sustainable cities, you did some good policy work in that space many years ago and I know you are trying to do this in Frankston but what is going on with the state government?' Well, the state government have said, 'No, it is just a tart up of the railway station.' They are not looking at the opportunity to extend the electrification down to Baxter and put a timetable in place for that to happen. They are not looking at additional railway stations that would open up access to the health precinct and to the university campus. They are not contemplating that the Monash School of Medicine, which now does a lot of its clinical practice in Frankston, could actually be supported by academic and educational infrastructure to take that learning and that vitality in our community to another level. No, they are not interested in that. It is just a project.

I say to the state government again: 'It should not be just a project. There are tens of millions of dollars going into doing something at Frankston railway station. Do something strategic. Do something catalytic. Understand the great possibilities and potential of our city and take a step in line and advancing that strategic vision for our community.' But no, it is just a project. I say to the state ministers again, 'It is not just a project, and with the trajectory that it is on it will be a missed opportunity.' It has all the hallmarks of the East West Link project in Melbourne, of a new state Labor government with a few novice and rookie MPs—particularly the member for Frankston, who has obviously got the Labor Kool-Aid that if something is not right you just blame the feds. That seems to be his pro-forma response to everything rather than being prepared to collaborate and be constructive, to be adult and a statesman. No, he hasn't got that. He has gone to Labor Advocacy 101 and just blame someone else campaign. He needs to lift above that. I know he is new. I have been happy to work with him. I am happy to bring together people that can contribute something to this important project, but he does not want to talk about it. That is what we saw with the East West Link, where we heard the state Labor government saying, 'It's our way or it's the highway.' It is not even that: it is their way and it is no highway.

Now they have turned up with some new projects and asked for federal money. Do you know how they asked for the federal money? To quote the opposition leader in Victoria, 'They've wrapped a note around a brick and thrown it through the window of the feds.' That is an interesting modality of consultation and collaboration. But that is what we see from the state Labor government: all politics, nothing strategic and nothing planned; just a hunt for a headline in the Herald Sun for the next day that they hope will mask the dysfunction of the state Labor government and the missed opportunities for our city.

We need to do better than that as a state, and the state Labor government needs to realise that there are others around that can help. There is the private sector, who they seem not want to talk to. In the Frankston project they do not even want to engage the private sector. Yet there is the private sector ready to play a role. There is an opportunity to engage their health network. It is in the state government domain and they will not engage there either. There are the university, the TAFE campus and the local council. There is the fact that we lease police infrastructure and the idea of improving the rail links to the city to have a Frankston flyer. What is going to happen to the port at Western Port? There are so many moving parts. It needs a strategic approach, and that is why the Metropolitan Planning Authority needs to deal with this. But instead what do we get? 'Oh, it's just a project. Don't worry about it, Bruce. It's just a project.' Well, it is our city's future. We deserve more than that and we deserve a state government that understands that these are the moving parts that we can synchronise. I will add to my remarks at a later time.

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