Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

While it's of course great that black spot funding is available across electorates, we know that work is needed on local roads to save lives. I was really proud to support a grassroots campaign from my community to use federal government funds with the council to build a pedestrian crossing on McCormicks Road at a nursing home, where, tragically, a local resident was killed crossing that road. But this government likes to compliment itself for doing the bare minimum. It likes to make announcements on things like infrastructure but not deliver them. I stand here as a member for Dunkley, a community that, before the 2019 election, was promised $30 million of federal funding to upgrade intersections at Ballarto Road, not far from the McCormicks Road incident that I just spoke about. It's now October 2021 and there have been no upgrades. I've written to the Prime Minister and I've written to the minister responsible, and whose fault is it? Apparently it's the state government's fault.

My community was promised three separate commuter car parks by this Morrison government before the 2019 election, at Seaford, Kananook and Frankston. It's October 2021 and how many commuter car parks has this government delivered? None. In fact, it took the money out of this year's budget for Seaford and Kananook because it was a promise made without consultation with the community, without consultation with the local council and without consultation with the state government, and there was nowhere to build those car parks on the existing land. Whose fault is it that those car parks at Seaford and Kananook promised solely by the federal government, and in conjunction with the state government at Frankston, haven't been delivered? According to this government, it was the state government's fault. The federal government has now had to acknowledge it couldn't do Seaford and Kananook. I've met with the former Deputy Prime Minister, I've met with the current responsible minister, I've written to the former responsible minister about delivering commuter car parks for my community. Not only does the Kananook area need car parking; the mighty Frankston & District Basketball Association needs investment, and I'm not going to stop until I see this government deliver.

Before the 2019 election, this government campaigned on delivering the extension of the Metro line to Baxter. Now it's October 2021. What's happened? Nothing. For years, they sat on a business case that the state government did. It was released more than 12 months ago now—in fact, I think it was the end of 2019. What have they done since then? Nothing. Whose fault is it? Apparently, it's the state government's fault that it hasn't done a further business case. But the federal government hasn't asked them to. There are now pushes to get this train line extended in stages, but the federal government still hasn't asked the state government to do the business case to get this done.

Since I've been elected, I've been pushing this government to deliver the infrastructure that my local community needs. I've written to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the responsible ministers; I've made submissions and advocated and made speeches, before this year's budget, for the upgrading of the Emil Madsen Reserve in Mount Eliza, which desperately needs it so that it's the sporting precinct my community in Mount Eliza deserves; for investment in Nairm Marr Djambana, the local Indigenous gathering place in Frankston, so that we can have a gathering place for the growing Indigenous community and for the non-Indigenous members of my community to join with them to celebrate culture; for funding for the McClelland sculpture park and gallery, which is not just a hub for arts and culture in my community but is a tourism destination and could be a tourism mecca for the wider south-eastern Melbourne and Mornington Peninsula region but which needs support. I've mentioned the Frankston & District Basketball Association and the Mornington Peninsula Bay Trail. I will continue to push this government to provide funding.

This government talks about black spot funding. That's great for intersections and roundabouts, but where's the investment in the infrastructure for the future? Where's the investment in renewing the national energy grid so that it can take the renewable energy that we must invest in, for this country, for the economy, for jobs and to reduce emissions? Where's the investment in infrastructure for electric vehicles? Where's the investment in infrastructure for solar batteries in communities and in suburbs? There is none, because who is running things, really, in this country at the moment? It's the Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, and his ragtag Nationals. It's not good enough and it's failing our communities.

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