Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to put on the record my agreement with the member for Higgins and her contribution. I agree it is important that we as a parliament deal with this issue and put in place a sustainable national insurance scheme to deal with disability. Today though I rise to thank the Barwon south-west region of Regional Development Australia, which covers not only my seat but the federal seat of Corio and most of the federal seat of Wannon, for the hard work they have put in over the last 12 months or so in developing a pipeline of projects that have agreement across the region. These projects are important for the ongoing economic development and sustainability of south-west Victoria.

After some significant time working up projects and working through with the community they have been able to establish a list of projects that have the backing of the region and have secured funding from other levels of government and the private sector. They were successful with the regional infrastructure money that Minister Simon Crean announced a couple of weeks ago. They were that successful that they got the first two projects up. I was very delighted to have worked closely with them. They were successful in getting $10 million towards the ongoing redevelopment of the Geelong Football Club's stadiums and lights. This is certainly a project that has strong support across Geelong and south-west Victoria. They were also successful in a second project: a further $10 million to redevelop the Geelong City Library and Heritage Centre. The library was built in the 1970s, I think, and had not been redeveloped since then. The major library of the broader Geelong region was a lot smaller in floor space. I would like to congratulate them on that.

They of course do have other projects that they will be pursuing in following rounds. That will depend on the mining taxation arrangements being passed before this parliament to put in place the necessary funding mechanisms. I look forward to working again in the years to come with the Barwon south-west region to pursue projects that are in the interests of the whole region.

Both of the projects that I referred to are in the federal seat of Corio, not Corangamite, but they are projects that support the whole region. I had great delight in announcing the outcome of both of these projects three days before the AFL grand final. I was able to go down to Kardinya Park and meet with the CEO of the Geelong Football Club. I also met the Geelong Football Club captain, Cameron Ling, who went on and starred in the grand final. In the last week or so he has announced he will be retiring from football. I wish him all the best in his retirement. He is deeply admired across the whole Geelong region, and I think he will have a lot to contribute to our community post-football.