House debates

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Adjournment

Victorian Government

7:30 pm

Photo of Kelly O'DwyerKelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

It is a great privilege to represent the federal seat of Higgins and I will never tire of attending the citizenship ceremonies, the schools, the local fetes and the listening posts, whether in High Street, Ashburton, or Cato Street, Prahran, or the listening posts that I attend outside local shopping strips and also outside our local stations. But there is something that has happened over the last month—the chatter has become a lot louder in my electorate that the Brumby government in Victoria has got to go.

I represent a federal electorate which has five state seats within it: Prahran, Oakleigh, Hawthorn, Malvern and Burwood. In each of those state seats there is a Liberal candidate who is passionate about their community and who is fighting for the issues that are so important to where they live and work—people like Clem Newton-Brown, who is the candidate for Prahran, Theo Zographos in Oakleigh, Ted Baillieu in Hawthorn, Michael O’Brien in Malvern and Graham Watt in Burwood. They are working hard in conjunction with their state upper house colleagues for the southern metropolitan region—people like Andrea Coote and Georgie Crozier. Each of these Liberal candidates is working hard to hold a tired 11-year-old Brumby government to account for their policy failures and to prosecute their vision for a future in Victoria that can be so much brighter.

Victorians face a real choice on 27 November. They can choose more of the same, they can choose a do-nothing government—a government that is wasteful, a government that is arrogant—or they can choose the opposite: a Baillieu government, a government that will fix the problems and build for the future. The task facing the coalition in Victoria is great. They need to win 13 seats in order to win government, just less than a seven per cent swing. With less than a four per cent swing, 3.75 per cent in fact, we will see a hung parliament. This would be a travesty for the people of Victoria.

What is important are some of the issues that our local candidates are campaigning for. I want to touch on a couple of the issues that are so important to my electorate of Higgins and issues that I know our local candidates are passionate about. The first is the issue of clearways, which has been a campaign that Clem Newton-Brown has been working on for a very long period of time, because he understands that extended clearway hours will have a very detrimental impact on small business and on local employment and that it will have a very significant impact on the local economy. He understands that the local amenity is not improved by these extended clearway areas and he understands too that the decision of the Brumby government has been made without any consultation. So a coalition government will scrap the Brumby government’s blanket changes to clearway times within a 10-kilometre radius of the CBD.

Public transport is another issue that is so critically important in the electorate. It is important both in Oakleigh and also in Prahran, and in Hawthorn, Malvern and Burwood. The issue of public transport is all about having safe and reliable public transport in Victoria, public transport that is punctual, comfortable and clean. A Baillieu government will deliver more trains for the people of Victoria—40 new trains for the Melbourne suburban network.

The other issue that is so critically important for the people of Higgins is the issue of planning. We have seen with the arrogant Brumby government that they are taking choice away from local residents. They are taking it away from local councils who represent those local residents and instead putting that power with the Minister for Planning, who makes decisions not based on the understanding of the amenity of the local area but regarding his own particular criteria. Well, we do not think that this is right. We think that choice should be with the local residents who are affected by the decisions made with respect to planning. This is an issue that I know in particular Michael O’Brien and Ted Baillieu have also been campaigning hard on.

Finally, the issue of safer streets is an issue that Graham Watt, the candidate for Burwood, is so passionate about, which is why he wants more police on the street in Ashburton. The choice is clear. Let us hope the choice that is made on 27 November is a good one. (Time expired)