Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Casey is a wonderful community. It's a strong community that has had a history of working together. Like all communities, we face challenges, but we're going to work together to solve those challenges. I've been so fortunate to work with many in the community to look after some of the needs that we have. I'm going to talk about those today, starting with roads and transport.

Anyone who drives through Casey knows that our roads are suffering from significant neglect and disrepair. Whether you're in our suburbs or you're heading out to Powelltown—which I had the opportunity to do on Saturday night to celebrate the end of the season with the Powelltown Football Club—whether you're up in the Dandenongs or you're driving the Warburton Highway or you're dodging potholes on the Melba Highway, so many of our roads pose significant hazards. So it's no surprise that the RACV's My Country Road survey's most reported roads is the Melba Highway, between Coldstream and Yea. It's a terrible stretch of road that has suffered neglect from the Victorian state Labor government. This was closely followed by the Warburton Highway, the road between Seville and Woori Yallock, which is renowned for potholes, dangerous driving, dangerous roads and unsafe intersections.

When I'm out doorknocking and talking to my community, one of the biggest issues raised is the poor state of our local road network. And when I'm doorknocking in Mooroolbark, Lilydale or Mount Evelyn, residents are talking to me about the Mooroolbark Road and Hull Road underpass, the single lane under the train line. The underpass has been a bottleneck since I was a kid, and it's time it was upgraded so that our community can get home sooner and safer. I will continue fighting to upgrade the underpass, and I thank those in the community who have added their voice to my petition and my campaign to get that upgrade, which is sorely needed. Together, we can get that done.

My community is periurban, so we have suburban areas, highways and dirt roads. Dirt roads are a large part of our community. In fact, we're one of the largest areas across the country for dirt roads because of that periurban nature. It would have taken 70 years to seal all the roads in our community if it weren't for the roads for communities program that the coalition government announced in 2019. That was $150 million to seal roads across my community. Unfortunately, one of the first acts of the Albanese Labor government was to rip up that funding. That was $100 million pulled out of my community. Despite the project being delivered on time and on budget, despite the budget confirming in Senate estimates that it was delivering safety benefits for the community and despite the Prime Minister, who was the shadow minister for infrastructure at the time, committing Labor to the 10-year program to—and I quote—'build the safe roads our community needs,' Labor backflipped. They broke their promise; they broke their word to our community.

When I'm in the hills or in the Upper Yarra hills, in those areas that have dirt roads, it's something people continually raise with me. My commitment to them is that I will continue to fight to get this funding reinstated. I will hold this government to account for their broken promise. I will make sure that we get the roads that we deserve so that we can drive safely and so that our brilliant agricultural products can get taken to market and the quality can be protected.

While we have frustrations we're fighting, we have had some significant wins when it comes to roads. This government put every infrastructure project in the country on the chopping block when it was elected, including Killara Road and the Montrose Canterbury Road roundabout upgrade. But, as a community, we stood together and said we wouldn't accept it. I want to thank all those who attended my community forums and added their voice to the petition to ensure funding was not cut. We were successful in those campaigns. And the  Montrose upgrade is going ahead right now. However, I want to acknowledge that that upgrade is causing significant challenges for the small businesses and the residents in those communities. We know that's part of the challenges of a significant infrastructure project, so I want to urge locals to support those shops in Montrose and continue to urge the state Labor government, as I have since the project started, to get the project completed as soon as possible so that those businesses can get back to normal.

Killara Road is in Coldstream. It's a significant and dangerous road and intersection. The state government committed that the pre-works and consultation would be completed by 2024. We're now three to four months from the end of 2024, and no pre-works have started and there's been no consultation with the community. This funding was given to state Labor in 2019. At the start of this year, they committed to completing the pre-works and consultation by the end of this year for the works to start in 2025. It's about time Labor got on with it and delivered it. We deserve safer roads. That funding is with the government in Victoria. They have to get it done.

Roads are a crucial issue, but another significant issue in my community is health services and access to health. I thank those who have engaged with me about their challenges in accessing GPs and the increased cost and availability, particularly in a semi-rural, periurban area. The coalition has a plan to increase GPs in rural and regional areas by working with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to provide incentive payments, assistance with leave entitlements and support for prevocational training. It's so crucial we get access to the GPs that we deserve.

An area that I'm passionate about, and something that I've spoken about since coming to this House, is mental health and mental health support. This Thursday is R U OK? Day. It's a national day of action dedicated to reminding everyone that every day is the day to ask, 'Are you okay?' The reality is that many people aren't okay, whether it's because of the cost of living or because of other pressures and challenges they face.

In my community, mental health is a significant issue. In the last census, 16,047 people from the Yarra Ranges, which mirrors the seat of Casey, reported experiencing a mental health challenge. For context, that's almost 20 per cent higher than the national average. At my recent community leaders forum, with over 60 local community leaders, they identified mental health challenges as one of our key issues and noted, 'People are slipping through the cracks, and it is expensive to see a mental health practitioner.'

I'm proud to be part of a coalition that is committed to increasing the Medicare subsidised mental health sessions from 10 back to 20, after the Albanese government ignored a report that said it should stay at 20 and cut it from 20 back to 10. I was talking to a resident at the Kallista Market just this Saturday, and she was sharing the heartbreaking story of her son, who got those 10 sessions. They're now having to find the money, because he has significant challenges, and she spoke about the financial pressure that the $280 a session is putting on them. That's why everyone deserves mental health services regardless of their financial situation. It is a shame that this Prime Minister cut that funding and, again, has left the Australian people without the support that they need.

At that market at Kallista Village on Saturday and at the recent Upwey Community Market, when I was talking to Hills locals, the other issue that consistently came up, in addition to roads and mental health support, was telecommunications. It's an ongoing issue for our community, particularly in times of storms but also every day. The former Liberal government funded nine towers all across our community, and in the lead-up to the election I was proud to commit to towers at Menzies Creek and Silvan, which are being developed. But more needs to be done. With the last round of PUMP funding my community, despite being regional and rural, was not included in that program or in that definition. I've written to the Minister for Communications; I've engaged with her about it. I urge her to make sure that eligibility for future funding rounds ensures that our community is considered as the regional and rural community that it is and that it gets the telecommunications that it deserves, every day and in emergencies.

I thank everyone in my community who has reached out to me, shared their concerns and shared their thoughts. It's been a pleasure, over 2½ years, to work with them to proactively solve the challenges we face as a community.