Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting some of the sites in my electorate that are undergoing work as part of the government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, along with the Victorian coordinator-general of the program. There are over 284 nation-building projects being delivered in Deakin, at a total cost of almost $127 million. While the sites I visited on Friday represent only a small snapshot of everything that is going on in my electorate, they were an excellent example of the nation-building programs that the Rudd government is investing in for our future.

The four sites that we visited on Friday showed how the government is investing in housing, transport infrastructure and education. We began the day with a tour of a new social housing development in Ringwood East, in Stanley Avenue, a place I know very well—I looked at a house there for purchase many years ago. The development consists of six units and was recently completed, with some tenants having already moved in. I spoke to Norm Robinson, the builder in charge of the project, who has done a fantastic job and has other similar projects ongoing in the local area.

Social housing projects sometimes have issues relating to their proximity to transport, shopping centres and other amenities. I am pleased to say that the development I visited in Stanley Avenue in Ringwood East is located close to great local facilities—the station, the school and medical and health services—which is one of the reasons why I looked at buying a house very close by many years ago. It is an excellent example of a well-planned social housing development.

We then went on to visit the site of a most important project and certainly the No. 1 local issue in my electorate—the Springvale Road Rail Separation at Nunawading. This project is coming along very quickly, which will be welcome news to the more than 50,000 vehicles and the people in them that use the crossing each day, the people in the 218 trains that go across it each day and the 5,000 pedestrians who also have to fight their way through this mess. The $140 million project is receiving funding of $80 million from the federal government and a grant from the state government for $60 million. This demonstrates a great partnership between two great Labor governments.

I was given a tour of the building site on Friday and it was fantastic to see the progress that has been made since I was last there on 29 July when I saw the first pole being driven into the ground. The building of the new Nunawading station site has commenced. Modular train station buildings are being installed this month as well as the west and east side station roof canopies. Cranes, boom lifts and scissor lifts are everywhere on the site. Over 150 people are working on this project. I am told that the project is on track to finish on time, and I have no doubt that the Springvale Road Rail Alliance will achieve this goal. The workers are doing a great job on this long-overdue project, and the cooperation between employers and the unions on site is commendable.

We then visited two primary schools in the area that have received funding under the government’s Primary Schools for the 21st Century program and the National School Pride Program. New multipurpose halls are being constructed at the schools, and the principals at each of these schools are very excited about the projects that are happening right under their nose. At Blackburn Primary School, we met up with Principal, Sue Henderson, and builders, Higgins. They showed us the progress of the new hall on that site. It already has its concrete slab, steel work, timber frames and roof. The hall is moving along at a great rate of knots and should be completed around May next year.

We then went to Burwood East Primary School where we saw another Higgins’ construction, a new multipurpose hall, which is also progressing well. The builders are at the point of putting in the windows and the fit-out. Until this project, this school did not have a hall. Quite often, the school has had to conduct assemblies in the baking sun or the pouring rain because there was simply not the room to hold assemblies anywhere else but outside.

While these projects represent only a fraction of the great work being done in my electorate and, indeed, around the country, they show us how the government’s economic stimulus plan is working to build the infrastructure we need for generations to come. We should also remember that the Liberal and National parties voted against the stimulus plan. If those opposite had their way, there would have been no social housing development and no money for local schools to build new halls or paint their classrooms. How can we forget their vote against the Nation Building Program (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill on 1 June this year? If this bill had failed to pass through the houses, there would have been no money to fix Melbourne’s worst level crossing at Springvale Road and provide for over 100 other road and rail projects across Australia. The Liberals had promised for more years than I can remember to fix Springvale Road, so the sheer hypocrisy of their promising funding for Springvale Road in an election campaign while voting against Labor’s funding bill in this House simply astounds me. As the events of today prove, the Liberal Party’s only interest is in their own jobs, not those of working Australians. (Time expired)