Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At this point of the year, we're now well into the work of building a better future across the nation and, importantly for me, across the communities of my electorate of McEwen. In May this year I was given the great honour of being returned by the people of McEwen to this place. As I have before, I pledge to them that I will work day and night to fulfil our commitments to them and do all that is within the powers of this government to make their lives better.

In May 2022 the Australian people voted for change. They voted for a government to deliver on change. Labor's plan is clear, and our mandate to deliver is just as clear. We committed to tackling the cost-of-living crisis facing Australia, to get wages moving again, to make child care cheaper, to act on climate change and to seize opportunities to become a renewable energy superpower. We said that we would invest in the skills, the training, the apprenticeships and the technology that our economy needs to thrive; that we would help more Australians know the security of a roof over their heads; that we would embrace the Uluru Statement from the Heart; that we would rehabilitate Australia's reputation in the region and around the world; and that we would bring dignity and humanity back to aged care.

It is up to my colleagues and me on this side of the chamber to take those plans and put them into action. As I said, this is a government that has been delivering on those commitments. It's a heavy responsibility that we have, but it's one that the Albanese Labor government is both capable of and committed to. You only have to look at the Treasurer's first budget to know that this work is already well underway.

Like every election, the last one was a tough fight. We saw a dying government flailing and desperately trying to cling to power every day. They had to parachute candidates, trying to present a fresher voice for an old and tired government. They looked past the serious economic situation we now face and shovelled money out the door in the hope that people would forget the decade of neglect that faced my community. But the people of McEwen saw through that. They knew they could not trust the Liberal Party or their dodgy candidates, and they put their faith in Labor to deliver real and effective change in their lives. This fact was even noticed by the Liberal candidate, who went out and said the government had deliberately neglected our area for nine years—great tick for them over there!

Critically, during this election, we made a number of important local infrastructure commitments in McEwen. As everyone in McEwen knows, good, safe and well-planned roads are critical for our local economy. We are the people who drive, and we need to do that safely. So we announced $150 million in Labor's first budget for the construction of a Hume Freeway interchange at Camerons Lane. This is an essential project for the Mitchell and Whittlesea councils. It is estimated this project will create 20,000 jobs in the regions and pave the way for more than 30,000 homes to be built. What is important is that, in the last sitting week, the member for Aston came in here and complained about us doing that, despite the fact that they ended up matching that commitment. What a bizarre world we sit in now, where there is a nine-year vacuum of responsibility from those on the other side!

During that announcement, we also committed to working with the Victorian government to actually deliver on the previous government's announcement of $50 million to construct the diamond interchange at Watson Street on the Hume Freeway. We found out subsequently that this was part of the now disgraced car park rort scheme—money that was never going to come. In fact, they also promised $50 million to upgrade the Hume Highway and put extra lanes in there. We then found out that they'd secretly pulled that money out and taken it away.

We had two elections where they directly lied to the people of McEwen. Then they were going to shovel this car park rorts money into the Watson Street interchange. That was a project, which, for our community, was a top delivery, and our community was failed by two years of deliberate neglect and deliberate untruth from the former government in getting that done. But, lo and behold, we committed to it, and we were able to work directly with the Victorian government, which committed another $130 million to do the Watson Street upgrade as well as the Wallan ramp. So these projects will now get done. That's the difference between a Labor government and a coalition mess.

We committed to improve roads across Mitchell and the Macedon Ranges, with $11 million to deliver safer, better roads. I'm pleased to say that all of these projects that we've spoken about were confirmed in our first budget. We also announced funding for a range of important local community structures, including $15 million for stage 2 of the Macedon Ranges Regional Sports Precinct. This project had been waiting nine years under the coalition government to get that funding, despite the council following the government recommendations for applying for grants every time. Senator Bridget McKenzie told them to apply for these different rounds of grants. They never got a thing. We committed to it in 2019 and we backed that up again in 2022. Guess what? Now the sods are being turned and this project is going to happen. There is also the $1.5 million for a recreational splash park in Doreen, $1.5 million for upgrading the Diamond Creek Outdoor Pool and $515,000 for essential works on the Greenhill lower oval in Wallan. Again, each and every one of these projects I've spoken about has been confirmed in the first Albanese Labor government budget.

One thing that we have trouble with in our area is communicating to our constituents. It's long been a problem ignored by the previous government. We had their rorted program on mobile black spots. There were three simple elements in the program: major transport hubs, rural and regional areas and areas prone to natural disaster. I live in an electorate that had 80 per cent of it burned out in the past 20 years, plus floods and storms, and 1½ towers is all they would deliver. The half tower was actually turning on one that was turned off; it wasn't actually delivery.

But along came the Albanese Labor government, making commitments such as $1.5 million for two mobile towers, in Gisborne South and Woodend, two communities that need them. Many communities in the Macedon Ranges have poor mobile reception, and fixing these black spots is extremely important to them because places like South Gisborne have been overlooked for so long. It's been my No. 1 priority in every submission that we sent to the hapless lot over there, and they totally ignored it. The town of Woodend is undergoing some mobile works at the moment. Once they are complete, we will be able to work with the shire to eradicate the remaining black spots.

For nine years, the neglect from those opposite has meant businesses have closed down. They talk about how they're the great people for small business, but they could not help these businesses get simple things such as the ability to use eftpos. Let's think about what that means in a tourist town. People come in. They want to buy things. They want to be part of a regional community, but they can't even get their money out, because they can't get access to eftpos. They can't use their mobile phones if anything happens. The irony is that it's our government, the real friends of small business, that is out there helping those businesses grow. No more have left town since May. Do you know why? It is because we actually got on with the job of doing something. We're delivering the things that they need. When businesses can't get 4G, you've really got to sit down and say, 'What was the point of the LNP government?' They couldn't help small businesses, they couldn't help communities in an emergency and they certainly didn't give a toss about country areas.

During the election, we made a number of critical commitments to schools in the electorate of McEwen, and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing Minister Clare to remind him of these and to say, 'These need to happen.' There is $50,000 for a new playground for the year ones at Hazel Glen College in Mernda, providing a safe fun space for children as part of the learning development. There is $50,000 for a new outdoor learning space for Diamond Creek East Primary School and $7,600 for Gisborne Secondary College for new shade sails. I am confident that this government will deliver that.

GPs were another issue we had, and I want to end this lie that has been put forward by the rump over there about us taking doctors out of regional areas to put into suburbs. It is an absolute lie. When members over on that side call places like Kyneton, Woodend, Mount Macedon 'city areas', you know they are absolutely clueless about Victoria—particularly members who sit there and say, 'You're putting doctors into local areas at our expense.' No, we are reversing what you did in 2019 when you cut the availability of doctors in regional areas to attract more doctors, cutting the funding and the MMA rating, leading to the district workforce shortage. We ran a full campaign before the election to get that done, and we got it done, so now doctors' practices which are overworked in regional areas can attract new doctors. It was a deliberate decision by the Nationals and the Liberals to cut that DPA status to try to load their own electorates up at the expense of the fastest-growing areas in Victoria.

This has been a continual problem that we've had. Pork-barrelling was done under the previous government at the expense of areas. As I said earlier, their own hapless Liberal candidate admitted that that government, the Morrison-Abbott-Turnbull mess, was deliberately not funding our communities, because they wanted a Labor seat. We know why it's a Labor seat: they know that, when they elect Labor members, they get what they've asked for. They get the delivery of the goods. They get the service. They get their help. When they get the Liberals or the LNP—the 'lying narcissist party'—they get nothing, and this has been a real problem.

See this speech in context