Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the high points of a redistribution is when you get an area in your electorate like the town of Seymour and its 6,000 people. I'm proud to represent the people of Seymour in this place and I had the privilege to meet so many of community groups and their leaders who are inspiring future growth with their ideas and projects.

Seymour is a regional rail hub at the junction of the Shepparton and the north-east rail lines. The Morrison-McCormack government is providing critical funding for rail upgrades with $235 million for the north-east line and $320 million for stage 3 of the Shepparton line. This will enable VLocity services to provide a huge boost to the connectivity of the region.

Also with rail in that area, I recently met with the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, an incredible group of people who are brilliant when it comes to rebuilding some of the most amazing heritage train carriages that you could ever imagine—carriages that were built in the early 1900s that have been brought back to life and put into use. They do amazing projects.

Seymour also recently received $487,000 from the Building Better Regions Fund for Kings Park for a new pavilion that is going to assist with the show, field days and riding for the disabled at Kings Park. I look forward to opening that in the near future.

Seymour has a strong association with the Australian Defence Force with the Puckapunyal Army base just east of the town. They also have an incredible connection with the Vietnam veterans with their commemorative walk in Seymour. It's the only one of its kind in Australia and it gives so much joy to visiting veterans as they go past and look at their names on the walkway. The Puckapunyal Army base is also home to the tank museum, and there is a push from locals to have that tank museum rebuilt closer to the entrance.

The Australian government has just announced $96 million for a school of armour which is going to facilitate with the training in these new armoured vehicles and create high-fidelity training simulators and make our armed corps more battle ready into the future.

There is so much going on at Seymour, but there's also a very strong need for better health services. We're going to be working very, very hard for an integrated health community and business centre into the future. Thank you.