Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about roads in my electorate of La Trobe and the crucial linkage between road improvements and job creation. In the La Trobe electorate there is a parcel of land known as Minta Farm on the border between the suburbs of Berwick and Beaconsfield. It is approximately 286 hectares in size and is immediately south of the Beaconsfield interchange. The majority of that land is planned to be developed into a high-density business innovation and technology park, with opportunities for advanced manufacturing as well as research and development. I've spoken to Casey council, and I congratulate Mayor Sam Aziz. They are very focused on high innovation and advanced manufacturing jobs. I would also like to give a plug to the Mayor of Cardinia, Brett Owen, who has been very passionate about this. This will create 10,000 jobs in this area. That's the potential for 10,000 local people to be able to work closer to home, spend more time with their families and use less petrol getting to and from work and there will be fewer cars on the Monash Freeway travelling into the city. Car travel is a way of life in my electorate due to the scarcity of public transport options. So it's really important, when we create jobs, that they are local to stop people needing to travel to the city. However, early connections to the Monash Freeway are going to be vital in order to support the development of Minta Farm as an employment precinct.

This is one of the several reasons why I'm calling for work to commence as a priority on the extension of O'Shea Road in Berwick from Soldier Road to the Monash Freeway Beaconsfield exchange, together with the east-facing ramps that will create a full diamond interchange. The development of Minta Farm employment land will be held up until this high-standard connection can be achieved. The extension of O'Shea Road and work on the Beaconsfield interchange will be vital to ensure that projects succeeds, and it will support one of the fastest growing municipalities in Australia. I announced this project back in April 2016 with the Prime Minister—a billion dollar plan for upgrading roads, committing $500 million to the Monash upgrade. But it also included the Beaconsfield interchange and O'Shea Road for those points I just made.

The city of Casey has a current population of more than 310,000 people, which is almost double its number of residents only 20 years ago. About 8,000 residents move in every year, which is the equivalent of a whole plane-load of new arrivals every fortnight. The Minta Farm project will also very likely act as a catalyst for the development of another significant industrial precinct further east at Officer and Pakenham, which will create further job opportunities for Melbourne's south-east and give yet more local people improved quality of life by spending less time on the roads and more time at home with their families. There are 180,000 vehicles currently using Monash Freeway every day. With this project, we are now in the position to reduce that number, rather than increasing it.

On the subject of the Monash Freeway, in April 2016, as I stated, the federal government made a commitment of $500 million to get the project moving. After this was announced, the Labor state roads minister said in parliament that this was a bird-brained idea, yet we were able to force Luke Donnellan to cave in and commence funding for stage 1 of the Monash, between Clyde Road and South Gippsland Highway. I believe most of the $500 million will be from Transurban—so they can continue their tolls on the residents in the east for another 10 years!

The very disappointing thing was that in this year's state budget only $2.5 million was allocated for the business case for the other sections of the Monash, between Warrigal Road and South Gippsland Highway and from Clyde Road to Cardinia Road, which is something vitally important for our area. State Labor has made a weak commitment to just the one additional lane between South Gippsland Highway and Clyde Road. This translates to no relief for local roads like Clyde Road and an even bigger bottleneck at South Gippsland Highway.

By contrast, the federal coalition's commitment of $500 million equates to widening of the Monash Freeway not just from South Gippsland to Clyde Road but from Warrigal Road right out to Cardinia Road. Only the coalition's plan for the Monash Freeway, which was announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, will resolve the gridlock. I know the state Labor government are talking about getting on board, and we're hoping to see some action in November, but can I plead with the state Labor government: this project is so vital that we shouldn't be playing politics with it. I will congratulate them as soon as they come out and actually start work on the Beaconsfield interchange. Remember, Mr Deputy Speaker, they have the federal funding; they just need to use it.

Still on the subject of roads, in the north of my electorate is Mount Dandenong Tourist Road. It's a narrow road that twists and winds through towns such as Ferny Creek, where I went to primary school; Sassafras; Olinda; and Mount Dandenong. It's a beautiful section of road, but each weekend—and we can pretty much blame Cadel Evans for this—we have so many cyclists come up there that it becomes dangerous for cyclists and motorists. If a motorist tried to overtake a cyclist when a vehicle or other cyclist was coming the other way it could end in absolute tragedy, and that's something no-one wants to see. The TAC reports that in the last five years there have been 24 road accidents, which is 24 accidents too many. It also causes great concern for the CFA, especially in the fire season, as they have difficulty with trucks going past in different directions. At the last election we committed $10 million, and we've been working with Yarra Ranges shire and VicRoads. We believed there was going to be a lot more funding. Sadly, the state Labor government is not putting any funding into this project, even though it's so vital for tourism in the area.

Further west in my electorate a major east-west road continues to increase in popularity, and hence congestion, and that's Wellington Road. It's a single-lane highway that has been at capacity for many years. Back in 2007, in response to numerous requests from local residents and after doing a large survey, I committed $10 million for overtaking lanes on Wellington Road. Regrettably, it ended up in a huge stoush with the Yarra Ranges Council after the overtaking lanes were put in near where residents lived, which seemed absolutely dumb and bizarre at the time and still does. Some time after that I lost my seat. I wrote to Anthony Albanese—it was my final letter as a member of parliament at the time—asking Labor not to give away this funding. But guess what, Mr Deputy Speaker? They gave it away. It went on the other side of the electorate. I'm now getting asked about it again by residents. They need support for having Wellington Road upgraded. I've had a pretty much ironclad guarantee from Yarra Ranges Council that if they get funding they won't redirect it. As I said, it was very disappointing for residents that we had the funding there but the job wasn't done and the money was sent off elsewhere. So again I'll try to get funding to fix Wellington Road.

See this speech in context