House debates

Monday, 26 March 2018

Statements by Members

Lalor Electorate: Flinders Street Station

1:48 pm

Photo of Joanne RyanJoanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Congratulations, Deputy Speaker Hogan, on becoming the Deputy Speaker. I rise today touched with sadness, as I saw on Facebook a post that has alarmed me greatly, and I speak on behalf of all the residents of Werribee. Today there's a story in the Herald Sun online: 'On the nose: Commuters report noxious smell at Flinders Street Station'. But on Facebook it carries the headline, 'Worse than Werribee: Why Flinders Street Station stinks today.'

I understand that reputations are hard won and easily sullied, but it is 40 years since Melbourne Water's sewage treatment plant carried noxious odours. So I rise today to correct the record for the Herald Sunand to do their journalists' and their subeditors' work for them. Werribee does not stink, as many who have commented today on Facebook have assured them. While I'm here, I would give a shout-out to one Monika Schott, who is doing her PhD research, called 'A faraway land', in which she is collating all of the stories that came from the Board of Works, as we used to know it, or 'the farm', from the 500, at its peak, families who lived and worked at the Board of Works. I'd like to encourage Monika and have her name mentioned here in the chamber for the incredible work she's doing raising our history locally.