Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to set out a plan this evening for protecting local seniors on the Mornington Peninsula, around Western Port and in Bass Coast in my electorate of Flinders. Let me begin with the town of Koo Wee Rup. Koo Wee Rup is a town with a significant number of seniors with many of the ambulatory challenges that people of a certain age face. They need a safe, secure environment. Koo Wee Rup has had to suffer unnecessary hardships due to the opening of the Packenham bypass in 2007 without a commensurate alternative for traffic which is funnelled through the town as a consequence. There must be a Koo Wee Rup bypass. This lack of a bypass is putting seniors and young children at risk. A peak of up to 90 trucks an hour go thundering past homes and pedestrians and seniors in the centre of Koo Wee Rup. The health and safety of local residents is compromised. There is no question about that.

To address the urgent issue, at the last federal election the coalition pledged $3.6 million towards stage 1 of a Koo Wee Rup bypass. Sadly, federal Labor did not match this pledge and the town remains under siege from heavy traffic. In the meantime, pedestrians on Station Street have no effective footpath and are forced to walk on uneven ground perilously close to the passing trucks and cars and this is something which is rapidly fixable. I join with the town’s residents and the Koo Wee Rup Walkers Group in calling on the state government to fund this footpath as a matter of urgency before the election, to make the commitment and to help the Cardinia Shire to achieve this goal.

The second area to assist with the local senior community and their health and safety is in relation to the health benefits of aquatic centres. There are two aquatic centres which we are seeking to have put in place across the electorate of Flinders. Firstly, on Phillip Island we are working hard—and the local community has worked especially hard—to build the case, to raise the funds, to establish support and to receive the state approvals necessary to put in place a Phillip Island aquatic centre. It would have facilities to assist seniors with hydrotherapy, to assist with the debilities which come with age and to ensure that these seniors, as well as many other people, have a therapeutic centre.

I would add to that the southern peninsula aquatic centre—or the SPA centre as it is known—which is to be in Rosebud and has tremendous community support. There can be no excuse for the state government to delay the approvals process any longer. The council has been frustrated at every turn. The Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has done a herculean job to try and get the informal green light from the state and it has been blocked repeatedly. We see that the state government continues to stonewall a much needed project with a hydrotherapy centre for the most significant concentration of seniors in Victoria.

The electorate of Flinders is the fifth eldest electorate in the country on a demographic basis. The Rosebud, Dromana, Rye, McRae, Blairgowrie and Sorrento area is the heart of that population of seniors and an aquatic centre with hydrotherapy is desperately needed. The council has done a tremendous job, but the state has dragged the approvals process through the mud, and it is about time that the state government made a commitment to expedite the process to ensure that there is a way forward for seniors on the peninsula and similarly to ensure that there is support for the Phillip Island aquatic centre. Both would be steps forward.

The final area that I wish to raise in brief in relation to the safety and security of seniors is to ensure that the Do Not Call Register is given greater prominence throughout the electorate of Flinders. This is a Victoria wide issue. Many residents have been receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be from the federal government seeking their details and seeking ultimately to scam them of money. The best way forward here is, firstly, police investigation; secondly, the Do Not Call Register. It needs greater prominence and it should be offered to all citizens and seniors. (Time expired)