Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a great pleasure it is to rise on the adjournment tonight. I would like to talk about Barwon Heads tonight. Barwon Heads is on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula. There is a bridge there that combines both history and utility. At 308 metres in length, the Barwon Heads Bridge is the longest all-timber bridge ever to be built in Victoria. Built in 1927, the bridge has become a tourism landmark that was used in the popular TV series Seachange, which I am sure, Mr President, you were an avid viewer of.

During World War II, the Army wired the bridge with demolition charges after there was a suspected sighting of a Japanese transport ship in Bass Strait. Of course, there was no enemy invasion and the Barwon Heads Bridge survived to serve as a vital artery for local commerce and business. But what the Imperial Japanese Army failed to do in 1942 an imperious Victorian Labor government seeks to do in 2008. Premier John Brumby has set his sights on the defacement of a much loved local landmark with a scheme that is ill conceived, ill advised and ill considered. He is aided and abetted by the member for South Barwon, a man better known for his arrogant and rude dismissal of local residents than his support for them.

The passage of time has taken its toll on the historic Barwon Heads Bridge. It was downgraded some years ago from its original 44-tonne capacity to a 16-tonne load limit. There are even questions about the long-term viability of the bridge. During the lead-up to the 2006 Victorian election, the Labor state government proclaimed that the Barwon Heads Bridge had been saved from demolition. Minister Hulls, the planning minister at the time, stated:

This evocative old bridge is one of the Bellarine Peninsula’s most loved and photographed landmarks. Today’s decision will make sure it stays.

But, like so many other Labor commitments, Hulls’s promises turned out to be as hollow as a chocolate Easter egg—a bridge to nowhere. The downgrading of the bridge-carrying capacity means that heavier vehicles are forced to take a 43-kilometre-long detour inland to get from one side of the heads to the other. The Victorian Labor government’s response to this problem brings to mind the famous saying about the cure being worse than the disease. The current proposal calls for reconstruction of the Barwon Heads Bridge in its original wooden style six metres downstream from its original position. That part of the plan is fair enough. But then VicRoads went a bridge too far. They went a bridge too far by proposing the building of a concrete eyesore of a pedestrian bridge adjacent to the heritage bridge on its seaward side. With the pedestrian bridge slated to be built a mere 35 metres from the end of the spit that has been seriously eroded by heavy seas, it will run smack-bang through the most environmentally sensitive part of the spit and will encroach on the popular Barwon Heads beach.

The President of the Grove District and Community Association, Michael Harbour, stated to the Geelong Advertiser that 30 metres of the fragile spit have eroded during storms over the past few months. I quote:

Should the erosion continue by the time the pedestrian bridge is completed it may be sitting in mid-air.

So, because of the hollow promises of Minister Hulls at Barwon Heads, there is a bridge to somewhere that the Labor government plans to turn into a bridge to nowhere. It is a bridge that could be rendered useless by the time it is completed.

Not surprisingly, the scheme has not gone down well with the local community. In fact, the area residents are, quite rightly, utterly outraged. They are outraged over the fact that this concrete monstrosity would completely spoil the iconic views of the wooden heritage bridge that had become a regional landmark. Friends of the Barwon Heads Bridge president, Bernard Napthine, was quoted in the Geelong Advertiser to the effect that he was ‘bitterly disappointed’ with the Brumby government plan.

On 30 September 2008, the following organisations convened a meeting at the Barwon Heads Town Hall to address the public’s alarm at the proposal: the Barwon Heads Association, the Barwon Heads Traders, the Friends of the Barwon Heads Bridge and the Ocean Grove and District Community Association. The Geelong Advertiser reported that over 150 people attended the meeting to express their concern over the VicRoads plan to construct a pedestrian bridge adjacent to the original heritage structure. The prevailing sentiment at the meeting was clear. Jeff Waite of the Friends of the Barwon Heads Bridge put it succinctly when he said, ‘We want one bridge in the same spot.’

There is one man who should be at the forefront of the fight against the desecration of the Barwon Heads Bridge: the Buckley ward councillor who represents the Barwon Heads region, Peter McMullin. But the long-time ALP activist has been missing in action on the Barwon Heads Bridge front. It turns out that he has been living in Melbourne for the last six months, laying the foundations of a run for mayor of Victoria’s capital city. Mr McMullin has left his constituents in the lurch. He has sacrificed the people of Barwon Heads on the altar of his own crass personal ambition.

This is one of those problems where the solution is simple. The iconic Barwon Heads Bridge should be rebuilt in a manner that respects its heritage status. This would accommodate traffic ranging from light trucks to pedestrians. If another bridge is required for heavy commercial vehicles, it should be constructed far enough upstream to preserve the unique historical ambiance of Barwon Heads. Above all else, the concrete eyesore pedestrian bridge that VicRoads wants to build adjacent to the heritage bridge should be cancelled. Regrettably, the Brumby Labor government has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to community concerns. This arrogant lack of interest comes despite the claims of the ALP member for Geelong Province, Elaine Carbines, during the 2006 election campaign that the Victorian government was ‘listening’ to the local community’s views.

This arrogant lack of interest comes despite the declaration by the Labor member for South Barwon, Michael Crutchfield, whom I referred to before, that the plan represented a ‘win for old-fashioned community spirit’. Hull’s hollow promises have ensured that this so-called win has eroded away like the Barwon Heads spit. In fact, roads minister Tim Pallas seems to resent the fact that the people of Barwon Heads even have the democratic nerve to express their views. Just last week, Minister Pallas apparently spat the dummy during a meeting with local residents, threatening in a fit of pique to take his monetary marbles and go home. Like the former union heavy that he is, Pallas resorted to intimidation rather than persuasion. In fact, he went on to say that, if opposition to the VicRoads plan were to persist, he would take the $40 million allocated to the project and use it elsewhere in Victoria. But the people of Barwon Heads have quite rightly refused to be browbeaten by Minister Pallas. Friends of the Barwon Heads Bridge responded that they would rather have no reconstruction project at all if it includes the planned cement pedestrian bridge.

Unfortunately, the Brumby government’s hubris does not just manifest itself in union-like bullyboy tactics or magisterial contempt for the Victorian people. Labor is so arrogant, so pompous, that it thinks it can actually lie its way through the public controversy created by its ill thought out proposal for the Barwon Heads Bridge. VicRoads originally claimed that the current reconstruction proposal was developed in cooperation with Heritage Victoria. But they were caught out in their framework of falsehood when the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria, Ray Tonkin, denied that he had approved a separate pedestrian bridge. In fact, it turns out that he did not need to. The pedestrian bridge is not being built within a 10-metre distance of the original wooden bridge; therefore, it does even fall within the jurisdiction of Heritage Victoria. So it is not just that the Victorian Labor government are poor planners; they are poor liars as well. They were playing fast and loose with the truth until they were caught out in their own web of falsehood.

This combination of arrogance and incompetence is typical of John Brumby and his crew. They are former trade union hacks who value privileges over responsibilities and power over principle and who put their interests over your needs. They are so convinced of their innate superiority that they think they can do whatever their whim might dictate, and public opinion be damned. This sort of behaviour is the antithesis of the Liberal philosophy of government. We believe that governments are elected to serve the people, not to run over them roughshod. We believe that government should stand at the people’s side, not in their way. We believe that the concerns of the Bellarine Peninsula and Barwon Heads communities deserve to be recognised and respected. The destiny of the Barwon Heads Bridge should be determined by the local community, not for the local community. The best way to accomplish this is to send the Labor government packing at the next state election. We will do it at a federal level as well.

In conclusion, I am sure that people who listen to or read this speech will be utterly appalled to learn that the beautiful bridge which set the scene for the magnificent ABC drama series SeaChange will be completely and utterly bastardised by this concrete construction.