Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to address state Labor's sky rail project. Some freedom of information requests I have made have been very revealing. Two of these requests have demonstrated a concerning level of secrecy within the Level Crossing Removal Authority as it surges forward with Labor's sky rail. The Level Crossing Removal Authority has so far exceeded the 45-day statutory response time frame by more than three weeks. The requests relate to the Community Tender Advisory Panel, a panel that the government set up to provide community consultation. The residents of Carnegie, Murrumbeena and Hughesdale have the right to know what advice, if any, was provided before Labor announced sky rail. It is simply not good enough to leave the community in the dark. This information must be made public, and if it is not then what are they trying to hide? Another FOI request has revealed that Premier Daniel Andrews failed to take any advice from the panel before his announcement. These revelations confirm that the community was missing from the supposed community consultation process.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Murrumbeena Primary School. The students cheered when I said that I was against Labor's sky rail proposal but that I was for putting rail under road. One student asked what #wheresdimo means. Missing posters have appeared across Higgins showing the hashtag with a photo of the member for Oakleigh, Steve Dimopoulos. Mr Dimopoulos has gone to ground, hoping to ride out this saga. Premier Andrews and Minister Jacinta Allan are also in hiding. I invited Minister Allan to visit our community over six months ago. She has yet to take up my offer, despite repeated requests. I again call on her to visit to hear directly from our community and to reverse state Labor's very damaging decision.

Because the Glen Eira council have not taken any action, the community has now launched a legal challenge to sky rail. I want to acknowledge the work that is being done by some incredibly passionate people, including Lower Our Tracks group. They are fighting for their homes, for their community and for the generations that will follow. They include Dianne Hunt, Karlee and Mark Browning, Michelle Letho, Tracey Bigg, Darren Brittain, Rob Leigh, Catherine Pendelich, Nina Lucas, Ruth Williams, Ed Meysztowicz, Manny Markogiannakis, Tim Snowden and many others. Our community is capable of achieving great things by working together. It is capable of delivering great infrastructure projects by working together and properly consulting with the community. I will continue to work with my local community to make sure that the infrastructure projects that are delivered in our part of Victoria are going to serve not only my local community but Victoria as a whole.

The Labor government need to examine the decision that they have taken. They must remove level crossings, but it must be done the right way.