Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am alert but not alarmed about reports of calls for tens of millions of dollars of expenditure to be added to the proposed Frankston bypass in the name of the endangered southern brown bandicoot. I am alert, because of the years of effort I and others have committed to making the case for the Frankston bypass and the need to relieve the crippling congestion that confronts Dunkley commuters, visitors, small business operators and potential investors in our community. I am not alarmed, though, as we are in the final days of local government elections in Victoria and the call by the Frankston council for this last-minute multimillion dollar addition needs to be viewed in the light of the close of voting in less than a week. Candidates naturally seek a political platform.

Fear that this additional expenditure would scuttle the project has been highlighted and elevated by Victorian Labor roads minister, Tim Pallas, who is reported to have said that the cost of building a tunnel would make the project unviable. The proposition surrounding the tunnel is that this would somehow assist the endangered southern brown bandicoot. The positioning by the state Labor government on this proposition follows: a pitch for Rudd government funding for the project; screaming Herald-Sun headlines that the project was a goer; backgrounding of journalists that the funding was a ‘done deal’; withdrawal from these claims as the EES had not been concluded; foot shuffling by the Rudd government as it seeks to ensure infrastructure funds are not perceived to be Labor political slush funds; and a seeming set-up by the Premier, who is ‘very disappointed’ that if insufficient federal funding were forthcoming my community would be fitted up with another toll road.

Let us be clear: the case for the bypass is compelling and the design and alignment can very adequately address the legitimate environmental considerations. It is worth noting that the EES assessment work identifies environmental benefits of reduced greenhouse emissions, recognising that congestion is a particularly significant climate change concern as combustion engines run while motor vehicles do not move.

Count me as a friend also of the southern brown bandicoot. These little critters were thought to call the area of the Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve home at some time in the past. No recorded sightings have been made in decades. Faecal matter has been identified in the area—and some have suggested this points to the existence of the bandicoot—and the endangered status of the animal has encouraged recovery efforts in the hope that restoration of the habitat may lead to the species re-establishing itself in our community. The committed group working on the recovery effort deserve support and encouragement. Efforts to control feral cats, foxes and dogs, fencing of areas thought to be most attractive to bandicoots, protection against the impacts of adjacent residential housing and ongoing research and survey work all play a role.

My support and advocacy for the bandicoot recovery efforts led me to support calls for funding assistance and resulted in the announcement of an Envirofund grant towards the effort. The area that was the focus of this work was in the immediate vicinity of the reserve car park at the end of Excelsior Drive, Frankston North. We all engaged in this effort in the hope that the bandicoots would come back, not having seen one of the little critters for some time. During a briefing I received from SEITA about the proposed bypass, I raised the issue of the southern brown bandicoot and I was assured the elevated section of the proposed freeway would enable unimpeded movement of bandicoots or any other fauna between the long-established reserve area and the more recently added degraded area of the former Keith Turnbull Research Institute land to the east of the decades-old freeway reserve. This addition to the reserve provides opponents with the line that the proposed freeway cuts through the heart of the higher conservation value remnant vegetation, when in fact we have an area of important remnant vegetation and an area attached and added to the reserve that would benefit greatly from revegetation. My advocacy to shift the alignment of the freeway to the east, away from the remnant vegetation and the hoped-for bandicoot habitat onto an area of old orchard where pest plants and animals were tested further embraced the need to protect and look after the conservation values of the area.

I hope this recent call for a tunnel, which would jeopardise the project, is not an improvised environmental device, an IED, designed to scuttle the whole project. If there are tens of millions of dollars available to be spent, let us spend them on extending the Frankston rail line, electrifying it down to Baxter and putting a park-and-ride facility there so that commuters wishing to travel to Melbourne can join the line there or car pool to that venue and go by electrified rail service to Melbourne, with more frequent and more generous express commuter options to the Melbourne CBD. That is practical and constructive work. We are looking after the bandicoot—but if someone sees one could you please let everyone in our community know, because they certainly can see the congestion, the harm and the hardship that would be caused by not proceeding with the Frankston bypass. I encourage everybody to get involved in the EES process; it is available for public input and comment. I urge people to recognise the urgent need for the Frankston bypass. (Time expired)