Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This may be the only opportunity I have in an adjournment debate before the election campaign as well. I want to put to you and this House my dream, for my beautiful electorate of McMillan, of what we would have if we had the money. Clearly, we do not have the money. The first thing I would like is a brand new hospital in the West Gippsland region. It will only cost $230 million. The state government will not have the money and the only way it can ever be done is by a coalition government that has money in the bank to do some major projects. We can put $20 million per year into this ageing facility and perhaps rebuild it over a long length of time, but we will still have an old facility—done up. We need to have, in clear sight, a brand new hospital and that is what the people of West Gippsland are asking for. And it would be for the surrounding districts as well, because it would draw from Pakenham all the way through the Latrobe Valley down to the new West Gippsland hospital.

There is the Port Welshpool Long Jetty, a historic tourism facility. We promised during the last two election campaigns that if we were elected we would rebuild the long jetty—$3 million to $5 million—because it is such an important material asset to the community. It would mean that the school progresses, business progresses and the pub progresses, and it would mean disability access for fishing—and I could go on. It ticks every box for a community that needs rebuilding.

You would want to look at bypasses for Korumburra. We would want to look at a soccer stadium and complex for Pakenham, and a new facility in Moe-Newborough for our 'keenagers'. Who are our keenagers? Keenagers are older people who play table tennis. They would normally be sitting at home twiddling their thumbs or watching daytime television. But, no, they are out there playing table tennis. They need a $1 million addition to the Moe-Newborough complex to make a difference to their lives so they are not setting tables up and down every time they go in.

The other thing that has come to my attention is that we need more respite care. It can be aged care, but quite often it is needed for people with diseases that do have an effect on people—those who are still suffering from the effects of polio as a younger person, or Parkinson's disease sufferers and so on—where our great heroes, our most magnificent carers in our community, just need a break. We are going to need more money for those people that need a break but, sadly, the money is not there.

We need duplication of roads, but especially the rebuilding of local roads. We had the drought and then we had the rain and then we had more rain, and the roads have broken up. We have had landslips all over my electorate and those landslips can cost as much as $1 million to fix. There go the roads that were going to be fixed with that $1 million!

The sad part is that because this government has gone into a budget emergency there is no money for any of these very important projects in my electorate. There is not a dollar. We cannot promise a thing to the community because there is no money there to promise. Otherwise we would be promising other people's money; we would be promising borrowed funds, and that is not the coalition way.

So here am I standing with all these desperate needs for my electorate of McMillan and we cannot promise to rectify one of them. You may think that it is a big dream for a West Gippsland hospital—well, I am a big dreamer for a brand new West Gippsland hospital. I am a big dreamer for the rebuilding of the long jetty. And I will continue as the member for McMillan to work towards these important projects. I will not give up just because they are a dream. I believe in this country. I believe in the wealth of this country and the ingenuity and strength of the people. I believe that one day under a coalition government we will turn the corner. We will pay off the debt. We will get our economy in order as every household has to do, the same as this country has to do. One day my great dream is that I will stand up—and perhaps you will still be in this place—and I will say, 'Tick for the West Gippsland hospital; tick for the Port Welshpool Long Jetty; tick for a Korumburra and Leongatha bypass; tick for a soccer stadium for Pakenham; tick for a new centre for Moe-Newborough for keenagers; tick for further respite care for aged care and people with disabilities such as Parkinson's and those suffering from polio; and a big tick for a whole lot of money to be poured into the infrastructure for our local roads right across my electorate of McMillan.'