Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was thrilled last week to welcome Minister King, the minister for infrastructure, to check out the Ison Road bridge in my electorate. I was as thrilled to stand with her to check the progress of that bridge as I was to declare that we had made an election commitment in 2022 to pay for half of that bridge in conjunction with the state government—a $57 million commitment that's going to move traffic away from the centre of the city of Wyndham and get people onto the M1 and to and from work quicker. It is an integral part of a system for the south-west of Melbourne to make sure people can move around across our city and move to the city of Melbourne quickly.

You can imagine how pleased I was to make that commitment after 10 years of neglect from those who now sit opposite, who committed nothing to roads in my patch and nothing for my community. Not only did they not make a commitment to my community through the federal budget; they starved the state government of funds for roads as well.

I'm really pleased we're getting on with the job and really pleased to see the Ison Road bridge coming to fruition. I am looking forward to working with the community as we get to the next stage and then to the interchange happening, to make sure it all works together.