Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2016-2017. I will use this opportunity to highlight commitments from the last election campaign and where some of those are up to in the electorate of Latrobe. One of the most exciting announcements we had in the last election campaign, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, was with Puffing Billy. We had a fantastic day and I would like to thank all the volunteers. There are many hundreds of volunteers working with Puffing Billy and they have been doing a fantastic job for so many years. In fact, Puffing Billy has in excess of 400,000 tourists each year and is great for the local economy. It is great not only for Victorian tourism but also for national tourism, because a lot of people, especially Chinese tourists—in fact, over 200,000 Chinese tourists—visit Puffing Billy each year.

We have committed $5.5 million for what will be known as the Emerald Discovery Centre, which will tell not only the history of Puffing Billy but also the history of the area. This is something that I am very excited about, and I congratulate the CEO, John Robinson. I met him recently to see how they are going. They are working with the Cardinia Council and I believe they are planning to appoint an architect soon to get the project moving forward. We also discussed an initiative that I had put forward, which has become known as the 'red rattler' project. That project is to restore an old red rattler train. These used to be very popular in my school days, when you would catch the red rattler and go to the CBD. These were at one stage very annoying trains to get on but, obviously, with nostalgia, we are very keen to get the old red rattlers back up and running and bring the international and interstate tourists from the CBD right out to Belgrave, so that they can have this great opportunity to go on a red rattler. It will be great for tourism and great for the local area. It will be one of those tourist opportunities that I have no doubt those coming from interstate and overseas will participate in.

A big issue has always been the Monash Freeway. This is something that I have pushed for for probably the last two years, because we have this huge growth corridor out in Casey and Cardinia. I was speaking to the CEO of Cardinia the other day who was saying that 128 new families are moving into that area a week, which is extraordinary growth. But the infrastructure needs to keep up. When I spoke with the state Labor minister, Luke Donnellan, and raised the need to actually commit to upgrading the Monash Freeway, he thought it was a bird-brain of an idea. Yet, the good news is that he has come to see how important this is and he is, under state Labor, taking the Turnbull lead and works have started between Clyde Road and the South Gippsland Highway. I welcome those works.

I would also note that we still have $500 million on the table for this project, which, sadly, is money left over from the East West Link project. The state Labor government spent a billion dollars on not building a road. So we now have $500 million additional funding which has been committed to the Monash. Work has not started yet, but I believe—and I have spoken to ministers federally—that there are positive discussions with the state Labor government. This is a project has to be done. It is so important. The state Labor government is really fixed on the $5.5 billion Western Distributor project. I have no issue with that at all, apart from the fact that only seven per cent of the return will be invested in the Monash; yet we know that the state Labor government is very keen to toll the Monash users, which is something that greatly concerns me and local residents.

A project which is vitally important is the completion of the Beaconsfield Diamond Exchange. When this project was build it did not have on-off ramps, which are now desperately needed with the growth in that area. Another important project is the extension of O'Shea Road. I thank ministers Paul Fletcher and Darren Chester for their support on this part of what I regard as the Monash proposal. This is so important because you now have the Federation University Australia taking over Monash University. I said to Minister Simon Birmingham that the next operator of that university site—as Monash was leaving—had to be very much focused on advanced manufacturing and innovation and creating the jobs of the future, and I am very proud to say that that is something that we are looking at. When you talk to businesses who want to get involved and focus on innovation and advanced manufacturing—something I know Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is very keen on—you realise we need to make sure the roads link up to the Monash Freeway, otherwise these sorts of businesses will not make their way into the local area.

The Dandenong Ranges are a unique part of Australia and somewhere I have lived all my life. We have had a $4.2 million environmental package over the years, including the $3 million Dandenong Ranges Environmental and Bushfire Fuel Reduction Grants. There have been two rounds, and I think all the volunteer groups who applied for funding have been successful. Sadly, at the same time as we put federal funding in, the state Labor government thought they would not put any funding into the local environmental groups—and I thank all those involved in CWAD for what they do.

This is about a combination of local environmental groups who have projects which they may have been working on for years. The money we put in federally—I thank Minister Greg Hunt, who at the time was environment minister—has just been extraordinary. It is one of the most exciting projects we have, and it comes down to biological control. I committed to this back in 2007 to 2010. Finally in 2013, with the election of the coalition government, funding was made available for this biological control. I thank CSIRO scientist Andy Sheppard, who I met the other day. We are looking at releasing what is known as a pathogen smut, which will basically get in there and destroy the wandering trad plant, which is overcrowding all the local creeks. This is very exciting if you are in an environment group. This is a weed that has devastated New Zealand. The good news is that we have again committed $1 million, mainly to focus on biological control. As I said, I met recently with Dr Andy Sheppard from the CSIRO, and the great news is that potentially we have enough money to wipe out ivy in the Dandenong Ranges. This is not the English ivy; this is the South African ivy, which is the one which creates a huge fire danger. Why does it do that? Because, when a bushfire comes along, the fire will go up to the crowns of the trees via this ivy. Also, onion weed is doing a lot of damage throughout the hills locally.

There are some other big projects we have got underway. I acknowledge Casey council for the work being done on Bunjil Place. The coalition committed $10 million to this project. Again, I note the state Labor government put no money into this $120 million regional project. There is going to be a state-of-the-art regional arts centre, theatre, studio space and function centre. It is just an incredible local project. The builders are out there doing great work at the moment. We are hoping to see this open by the end of the year. It is something that all Victorians, I believe, will get very excited about when they see it.

We committed $3.835 million to the Belgrave health hub. This was through the regional grants, prior to the last election. I was driving past there the other day, and the great news is that work is well and truly underway. The multipurpose health hub is vitally important. Belgrave and the surrounds need this project badly. It is something a lot of people have been fighting for for many, many years, and it will include services such as community health, emergency relief—and I acknowledge those who have been working so hard helping other local residents—youth services and aged services. They are all very important, but this is something that has been missing in the area.

I met the CEO of Cardinia shire, Garry McQuillan, recently and we committed $1.5 million to the Emerald community hub. The project has been taking some time to get off the ground, which is sad, but I have been told now that it will continue at greater speed. They will be looking at new commercial kitchen space and facilities for the University of the Third Age, U3A; a Men's Shed; a new foyer-entry; and an art display space and local tourism information on the ground floor. To me, again, this is a very exciting project in the local area.

There are two other projects I will speak about. One is what the Yarra Ranges Council call the Ridge Walk—but I like to call it the heritage walk—between Upwey and Monterey. This will connect all the local towns. It is very much focused on the famous landscape artists and is something I have worked on for a number of years, applying for national heritage listing of the Dandenong Ranges. It is based on our famous landscape artists: Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Indigenous artist Lin Onus and international artists, such as Eugene von Guerard—to name a few.

We also have Horatio Jones' house, a kerosene-tin house, which was constructed at the end of the First World War by Horatio, himself, and is where Tom Roberts and the Heidelberg Artists Society met. That is the history of the arts in the area. We want to highlight this for tourists so that when they come here they go into the hills. Very much up in the Dandenong Ranges we want to focus on tourism, and down in the south we want to focus on innovation and advanced manufacturing. That is where there is huge growth.

We also committed $1 million in funding for the completion of the walk between Cockatoo and Gembrook. This would be used by bike riders and horseriders—again, something very important for jobs and tourism. That is something the Turnbull government has been very focused on. The projects we committed to at the last federal election tie in, very importantly and crucially, with the overall game plan at a national level—that is, the focus on innovation and the focus on advanced manufacturing—to ensure that we give young people the best opportunities to get local jobs.

We also want to make sure we do everything possible to stop people coming out, in the southeast, by hopping on trains and hopping on the Monash and the Eastern to travel in the CBD. We want to create—and we are creating—a great opportunity into the future. I am talking about a vision into the future of high-tech advanced manufacturing, innovation jobs, locally, something which we will be very proud of into the future. That is the sort of government we have—a forward-thinking government creating these long-term opportunities.

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