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

I want to talk about progress in the town of Somerville. Somerville is a fantastic town within my electorate. Historically it was a great apple-growing district. It has now become a district with a combination of manufacturing and retail on the employment side and may be, along with Mount Martha, the centre with the most number of young families in the electorate of Flinders. There have really been three great steps in terms of progress in Somerville in the last 12 months.

Firstly, it has been confirmed after a long battle, a long and protracted community campaign, that there will be a police station in Somerville. This is overdue and it is a real tribute to the community campaign and the campaign of my friend and state colleague Neale Burgess, the member for Hastings. I am delighted to have worked with Neale on the campaign over many years. The fact that the Baillieu government made it an election commitment and has now begun the process of planning and searching for an appropriate plot of land means that this police station will happen. What we had imagined as a local police station now appears to be something that will be far more significant still, with many of the district functions brought to Somerville with, as I understand it, an additional police capacity. It was a great campaign and a great win for the community. Secondly, there is Somerville Secondary College. This campaign started a decade ago at a time when the then state Labor government was set to sell the land for the Somerville Secondary College and, therefore, take that prospect away forever. Again there was a great community campaign with numerous people involved, and it resulted in: firstly, the outcome of preserving the land; secondly, creating a years 7 to 10 college merged as part of Mount Erin Secondary College; thirdly, an independent Somerville Secondary College 7 to 10; and, just now, for the first time, having year 12 students. So the dream and vision of a Somerville Secondary College independent and standalone from years 7 to 12 has been established. That was a great cause for the community.

The third area of progress is in terms of an ambulance station. We are very close to getting that. Again I want to congratulate Neale Burgess on the fact that Somerville is due to get a new peak-period ambulance station to operate during the busiest times of the day. These three services together mean real progress for Somerville, and that is a good outcome.