Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, may I say it is a pleasure to present in your august presence this evening. On Thursday evening last week, 20 May, I held a community meeting in Somerville with my state colleague, the member for Hastings, Neale Burgess. Somerville is a wonderful town which has a remarkable history. It was one of Victoria’s fruit growing capitals. It has become more of a residential area, but it remains a centre of light industrial manufacturing as well as a centre of chicken processing, although it is in the rebuilding phase for the Inghams chicken plant, which was recently subject to a major, destructive fire. Fortunately, through a combination of work by people such as Neale Burgess and many others, funds have been found and the Inghams plant will be rebuilt.

Somerville is also a town with a tremendous social fabric and sense of history, but it is a town with two great challenges. The first of those challenges relates to its design. The town is cut in half by a railway line, which runs through the town and has a series of level crossings in an urban area. Some of those level crossings, such as those on Bungower Road, do not have adequate protection systems despite hard work to achieve that. The need is there for boom gates and for lights. Just as important as those significant safety issues, there is the quality of life issue. All of these items were up for discussion at the meeting. The second great challenge facing the town is that of purpose and activities and ways forward for the youth of Somerville. I think this problem stems in large part from the fact that, until recently, Somerville did not have a secondary college on site. There was a campaign led by many, in which I am pleased to have paid a small part, and we have been successful in achieving that college. What was agreed upon on the night, in order to deal with these issues, are a series of steps forward for this magnificent town that is in the middle of the Mornington Peninsula and in many ways is at the centre of the northern peninsula.

First, above all else, it is time for a structured plan, a vision for what Somerville can be over the next 20 years. It will lay out the pathway to ensure that the railway in the middle of town is, firstly, made safe and, secondly, covered by an overpass right in the heart of town where it divides the village into two at Eramosa Road East and Eramosa Road West. Ultimately, we can unite the two halves of Somerville. Ultimately, we can create a green centre and an area for public activity. We could potentially move the memorial to an open area in the middle of town to give proper and due recognition to those who served Australia in different conflicts.

That is the big vision. There is a need to begin the process of having a single long-term structured plan and vision for Somerville between now and 2020. There needs to be a plan to unite the two halves of the town. This town has a wonderful history and it deserves a majestic future, which it can have. It will make this good town with structural impediments a great town.

The second part of the vision is to deal with some of these significant problems. Firstly, we need to ensure, on the hard edge side, that there is a war on graffiti in Somerville. We have seen in the nearby city of Casey a very proactive approach to graffiti. My colleague Neale Burgess has a website that identifies graffiti and seeks immediate action. We want to strike an agreement with the Mornington Peninsula Shire to ensure there is zero tolerance of graffiti in Somerville and a cooperative approach between residents, shopkeepers and the shire to ensure that graffiti is eradicated. Secondly, above all else we want to see a 24-hour police station in Somerville. That is something on which I will never take a backwards step. It is necessary, so long as they are in addition to the police in Hastings, not in place of the police in Hastings. That goal is combined with getting years 11 and 12 at Somerville Secondary College. Our goal has always been to have a years seven to 12 secondary school. We now have a years seven to 10 stand-alone school. We are within an ace of having a years seven to 12 school for Somerville. (Time expired)