Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In its recent budget, this government has again dudded Victoria, this time in water infrastructure: the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund—no money for Victoria, despite putting up really good projects for this government to consider making a contribution to. There was no money for Mitiamo, for which $14.5 million was being asked; no money for the Sunraysia Modernisation Project, for which a mere $3 million was being asked; no money for the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh Irrigation District, for which $14.5 million was being asked; and no money for the Coldstream Recycled-Water Pipeline or the Yarra project, for which under $8 million was being asked. In addition, the Commonwealth was aware of the state's request for funding for the East Grampians project, looking for $32 million. Again, Victoria has been dudded by this government. It is an outrage, because they are not just dudding the state; they are dudding our stakeholders. Those stakeholders would be in the agriculture sector. They'd be working really hard on their farms to get produce to market, and they're being sold down the river by this government. It is really important in my electorate, where the Werribee Irrigation District is heading into the second stage, funded by the stakeholders and the state government. This government is going to hold back the last two stages of a modernisation project 40 years in the making. They should be ashamed of themselves.

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