Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise tonight to speak on a community well known to me, and I am sure you have great affection for my electorate in the Riviera of Melbourne, down at Dunkley. I want to particularly talk about that great Southern Hemisphere capital. I am not talking about Santiago or Buenos Aires; I am talking about Frankston, a great community made of great people with great possibilities for the future. It is pretty significant right now, because there is quite a lot of activity going on—activity that should support enterprise, opportunity and livelihood prospects in our community to match the outstanding quality of life opportunities. It is a great place to raise a family and to call home. But we need to make the most of those opportunities: the coastal beaches, the tourism hot spot, wonderful housing alternatives and good transport—we worked hard on the Scoresby Freeway and a few others to give the city many great attributes.

What we need now, though, is to focus on what is catalytic for the commercial centre of our city. It is a key part of the story of the greater Mornington Peninsula, and there is a chance right now to do something quite meaningful. But we have got to a bit of an impasse. The state government has understood the needs of the growing number of public transport travellers and the need to upgrade the Frankston train station. Some commitments have been made that should improve the amenity of the railway station. What I am concerned about, though, is not the ideas that are being brought forward to renovate the station, if you will, but more the concern that here is an opportunity to transform Frankston and to translate all of the momentum and economic potential that is there now into activity. A workmanlike, task-oriented approach to improve the Frankston railway station might tick the boxes as a job done, and it may be a competent plan, but it falls well short of the potential to use this project and other investments in the city to transform Frankston. The current plan is about improving the bus and rail station interchange, and certainly there is scope to improve the amenity, but I call on the state government and particularly our local state member, Mr Edbrooke—who I must commend for the work he is doing—to lift their vision and their horizon and think about the potential to use this investment as a catalytic investment—an injection of new opportunities into our city—and to revitalise and boost the Frankston Metropolitan Activity Centre.

Consider the transformation that has been achieved in Ringwood—somewhere not far from your patch, Mr Speaker—around a visionary look at the transport hub, to rebuild the commercial and retail centre in Ringwood. We have that potential as well. Think of all the money that has been invested in Dandenong. Imagine what could be achieved if only a fraction of that investment were applied to Frankston, to take what could be characterised as a makeover of the station into a transformation and a broader purpose and ambition for our city. That is what the business chamber wants, that is what the council wants, and that is what I have been urging, calling for and working for for some time: to go beyond the immediate task of getting a transport project done and dusted and off the plate; to think about what we can do to bring in the private sector; to look at other investments that are being made in our city; to look at the educational infrastructure; to see Frankston as a commercialisation hub, a research centre and a centre for learning and knowledge; to build on the presence of Monash and Chisholm TAFE; and to be the Fremantle of the east coast, if you will.

Look at what else is going on as part of some $300 million worth of investments: the headquarters of South East Water, at $80 million; the Frankston Hospital extension; the new aquatic centre; the Peninsula Centre redevelopment; the TAFE training centre; the yacht club redevelopment; and the work at the Frankston Park Function Centre. I am pleased that I have been able to ensure that the Commonwealth government has been a part of many of these projects.

There are more investments on the table, but I plead with the state planning minister, Richard Wynne, to task the metropolitan team that he has at his disposal, who have the expertise to knit together these opportunities, to have the Victorian government see the potential, and not to blow a chance to do something quite transformational. Assign the Metropolitan Planning Authority the task of planning, coordinating and executing these projects and bringing in the private sector investment that will see this public sector investment catalysed into many times its value as others come to the party. Think about Peninsula Health needing to vacate the Mount Eliza centre and having some of the Peninsula Health activities also brought into our city. This is a time of delicious possibilities, but it needs leadership and vision. We have mapped out a way of achieving this. We need the state government to get behind it, to assign the Metropolitan Planning Authority to this important task, and not to miss this chance for Frankston. (Time expired)