Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My constituents in the suburbs of Deer Park, Caroline Springs, Burnside and Cairnlea are very happy because the decades-old traffic bottleneck around Deer Park and in particular on the Western Highway, also named Ballarat Road, is finally coming to an end. It is coming to an end because the Deer Park bypass is due to be opened to traffic eight months ahead of schedule on 5 April this year. This is a major project in my electorate, costing $331 million and creating hundreds and hundreds of jobs. Along with the Victorian Minister for Roads and Ports and Major Projects, Tim Pallas, I recently had the privilege to visit the bypass. It is truly an awesome spectacle—a 9.3-kilometre link connecting the Western Ring Road at Sunshine West and the Western Highway at Caroline Springs. This is a valuable and much appreciated community asset.

To this day, my office gets regular calls from enthusiastic constituents asking when the bypass will be open to traffic. These people are understandably excited about the bypass. They stand to cut up to 15 minutes from their travel time—and, of course, that is 15 extra minutes they can spend with their families. Indeed, since that is 15 minutes each way, it therefore gives them 30 minutes more time over the course of the day and adds up to a significant amount of time over the course of a week.

This is a big win for the community, and I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge its contribution to making this project a reality. If ever one needed evidence of the effectiveness of grassroots campaigning, this is it. Residents have been passionate about the issue for years. It was also a major issue for me when I was first elected to this place as the member for Burke, and it remained a major issue for me when I was elected to represent the electorate of Gorton. Working together with residents, we were going to fight and get this project off the ground.

Just how passionate the community felt about this project was evident in the petition and public meetings organised on this issue. Indeed, there were thousands of petitioners’ signatures tabled in parliament. Six years ago, I was overwhelmed with the response to the petition prepared by my office. My office was inundated with signed petitions and messages of support. It was with great pleasure that I presented in this place that petition signed by thousands of my constituents demanding the construction of the Deer Park bypass. I also hosted two public meetings—one in Deer Park and the other in Caroline Springs. Both attracted hundreds of residents who, with a single voice, demanded that the then Howard government end its abysmal neglect of Melbourne’s west and build the Deer Park bypass. So I commend all of those community representatives and community residents who were involved in the campaign and I look forward to the opening of this important link on 5 April.