GRIEVANCE DEBATE
Mr WOOD (La Trobe) (12:50): Today I wish to raise the issue of infrastructure projects in La Trobe. For those who don't know, La Trobe is in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne and is one of the fastest growing growth corridors in Australia. Ms Doyle interjecting— Mr WOOD: Thank you very much.
Yes, it is, Member for Aston. The only issue when it comes to infrastructure out there is you always have to keep pace with the area's growth because it obviously becomes very tough for residents moving around. There were a number of road projects under the former Liberal government that I announced, working with local residents.
One was actually the Clyde Road and Kangan Drive extension. This is actually an extra lane from the train line going over the Monash Freeway. At the time the local Casey council and their engineers—obviously Casey council is not a little council; it's got a lot of engineers—came to me with the road package project, which was going to be $70 million.
We committed to doing that. Then, under state Labor—obviously this comes down to the CFMEU and their input of corruption and everything else—it blew out to $250 million. This was actually announced with the former prime minister and myself: we had the Racecourse Road and McGregor Road upgrades in Pakenham at $82 million.
That's a lot of money, $82 million. Again, state Labor blew this out to $398 million. To go back to Clyde Road, it's only 900 metres of road.
I basically worked out that every metre is costing $250,000. I understand that going over the Monash Freeway is a lot of engineering work, but the rest of it is just widening the road. Then we come to others, like the Berwick train station car park.
I compare this to when council—I think it was Maroondah council—upgraded the Mitcham train station car parks. That was done for under $15 million. The Berwick train station car park—I do note it actually has bus turn lanes et cetera—has gone to $64 million.
Again, that's state Labor putting their extra costs and burden on the taxpayer when it comes to the CFMEU. Driving along around Berwick and Pakenham, you see the CFMEU proudly displaying their flag, letting all the residents know that, in actual fact, it's their project and they're getting the most benefit from it, which is very, very sad. When it comes to road projects locally now in La Trobe—again, one of the fastest growing growth corridors in the state—there are no major projects going on except the ones which were previously announced by the Liberal government.
Under the former Liberal government, we upgraded the Monash Freeway. That was an extra lane from Warrigal Road right down to Cardinia Road for 36 kilometres. I note the state government in Victoria did actually match half the funding.
That was a good project with state and federal working together. We also delivered the Beaconsfield interchange, a very important project. There was also the extension of O'Shea Road, linking up Clyde Road to the Beaconsfield interchange.
When I talk about Racecourse Road upgrades, they're now in the final stages, with major work completed in 2026. The project includes adding an extra lane between Peet Street and Henry Street, removing the roundabout and replacing it with traffic lights and installing new signals at Railway Avenue and Campbell Street intersection. Pedestrians' and cyclists' safety will also be improved through the construction of new walking and shared-use paths, completing the missing link between the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road and New Pakenham Station.
Can I say also that the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup upgrades were a very, very important joint project. In fact, I drove down there on the weekend to take my daughter to a swimming competition, and that road is a great road. It was a very dangerous road.
What was one lane is now dual lane. It's good to see residents using that road, which is a hell of a lot safer now. Also, under the former Liberal government, we upgraded dangerous intersections across Latrobe—this was brought to me in particular by Cardinia Shire Council, and I give them their credit—between McGregor Road, and going further down, Cardinia Road.
As I mentioned, those were very important upgrades along there. Then I come to eight dangerous intersections which were funded. O'Neil Road, Glismann Road, Bayview Avenue and Tivendale Road are being completed.
This was the old Princes Highway. It was very dangerous. I remember once speaking to a lady who was trying to cross this with two children in the car, and, sadly, the lady behind her was beeping the horn and ended up forcing this lady to go forward, making a very bad decision.
They ended up having a T-bone, but, luckily, the children ended up being okay after that accident. Again, it's those smaller, dangerous intersections we've upgraded. The Officer South ramps have now been completed.
But one of the projects, very disappointingly, was stopped by the Albanese government when it came into power. Can I say, when Bill Shorten was the former Labor candidate, when we announced this program, they actually matched that sealing of the Hills program. I again commend CRAG21.
Like a local group up in Cockatoo who said, it's unfair that all these residents have been living up in the hills for years, and the roads are unsealed. They've got potholes. In summer there's dust; in winter water goes into the potholes.
They damage their cars. We secured $150 million to seal 110 kilometres of road for 164 local roads, and the program just started. It actually had already committed and sealed 38 roads.
Then Labor got in, and they cancelled all the funding, which is really upsetting for those local residents. The other one I was very passionate about was Wellington Road. Going from Clematis down to Lysterfield Road, Wellington Road is very important.
It's a single-lane road in both directions, and sadly, over the years, there have been fatalities and serious accidents. I've twice committed funding to this project, first in 2007. That's when we announced the funding prior to the election.
I must blame Yarra Ranges Council, who mucked about trying to work out where they were going to put overtaking lanes. My last letter was to the then transport minister, who's now Prime Minister, Albanese. I said, 'Don't allow this funding to be diverted.' So what did he do?
He added the funding to be diverted on the council's request—a bad move. So we recommitted the funding again for Wellington Road back in 2019, and the commitment was working with local councils. City of Casey, Cardinia Shire Council, Yarra Ranges Council and Knox City Council all gave me submissions of the costing.
The highest amount was $220 million for probably 20 or 30 kilometres of road duplication, and we decided to go with what was fair. We got the state Labor government to pay half, so we committed $110 million. We were hoping state Labor would commit to the remainder instead.
That didn't occur at all. What happened is that the Albanese government got in power, along with state Labor, and said, 'This project is now blown out to $900 million,' and they diverted the funding to the Suburban Rail Loop. So the Suburban Rail Loop ended up getting the funding from Wellington Road that we committed under the Liberal government, and for sealing the roads in the Dandenong Ranges.
The south-east and, in particular, La Trobe have really missed out when it comes to road funding. I know the Labor Party have their hearts set on the Suburban Rail Loop, but you're really hurting local residents when you divert funding from smaller projects to the SRL, which has been impacted by major corruption in the CFMEU.