Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to discuss three major road projects urgently needed in my electorate of La Trobe. I know about these from speaking to local residents, from hearing from those who have actually contacted my office or filled out surveys or simply by driving around the electorate myself.

The growth of housing in La Trobe is just incredible. The first major project we need in La Trobe is the Monash Freeway capacity improvement. Unfortunately, the Bracks Labor government in the previous era announced that the Monash Freeway had been built on time and under budget, but the reason for this was they had left a lane off it. Other projects are the O'Shea Road extension to the Beaconsfield interchange and east-facing ramps, and the Thompsons Road duplication.

The Monash Freeway needs capacity improvement. Our region needs the addition of extra lanes on the Monash Freeway from the South Gippsland Freeway merge to Beaconsfield. It also needs traffic management. We need to see during peak hours more lanes of traffic going in to town and fewer coming out, so the traffic lanes flow with the traffic at its most important stage. When it is busy, we need more lanes. Why is this needed? Approximately 100,000 local residents travel to work every day via the Monash corridor, not so affectionately known as the 'Monash carpark'. This rate of travel is expected to double by 2036 in proportion to the population growth in the region. Severe congestion on the Monash Freeway already brings commuters to a crawl well past Clyde Road in Berwick.

Our region also needs delivery of the missing O'Shea Road connection east of Soldiers Road to the Monash Freeway-Beaconsfield interchange, as well as east-facing ramps, to complete a full diamond interchange. Why does our region need it? Once completed, it would open up a new connection between Casey and Cardinia and provide a parallel east-west route to the Monash Freeway for commuters heading from Cardinia through Hampton Park to the employment areas of Dandenong South and Kingston. It would also reduce pressure on the congested Monash corridor and reduce traffic through the Soldiers Road and Kangan Drive areas of Berwick and Beaconsfield. The development of the O'Shea Road extension will facilitate and fast-track development of local employment land at Minta Farm, which is envisaged to create up to 10,000 jobs, and that is what we need—jobs.

Our region also needs the Thompsons Road improvements from Dandenong-Frankston Road to Cardinia Road in Officer South. This will service an employment and freight corridor spanning the Casey, Cardinia, Dandenong and Frankston municipalities and link emerging employment and residential areas. Why does our region need this? The current population of 380,000 in the Casey Cardinia region is projected to grow to 630,000 by 2036. Along with this massive population growth, we would see a huge jobs deficit, with 70 per cent of residential workers leaving the region each day for work. The Thompsons Road corridor has the capacity to support in excess of 100,000 jobs within the region, which would reverse the westward flow of commuter traffic and relieve pressure on the already congested Monash corridor. This delivery would also act as a catalyst for the speedy development of land in the corridor, opening up further residential and employment opportunities. I congratulate both Casey and Cardinia councils, which have jointly come to me and lobbied for these three projects.

All of this is clearly needed for more local jobs, for more local business opportunities for small business owners, for sustained population growth, for management of traffic flows, for the development of our residential areas and for the better work-life balance of people who live in La Trobe. Families in La Trobe want to spend more time together. They do not want their mum and dad or their brother and sister driving on the Monash Freeway to be stuck in traffic. We need to commit to provide funding for these three projects as soon as possible to keep up with the area's growth. In the neighbouring electorate of McMillan, the growth out in the Pakenham corridor is also incredible. I will be lobbying hard to get commitments on these three projects, working with both the federal and state governments.