Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my maiden speech, I talked about the need to invest not just in the inner city but also in the outer metro regions, as well as in the country. I talked about the need to invest in transport, particularly in rail and fast-rail infrastructure projects, to create polycentric capital cities across Australia and states of cities. I also talked about these things many years ago when I was CEO of the then Mildura Development Corporation and when I was spokesperson for the NorthWest Rail Alliance.

Imagine, for example, Madam Deputy Speaker, if you were in a place like Mildura, Shepparton or Wodonga, and you could get to and from Melbourne in two hours or less. Imagine what this would do for the decentralisation of businesses from our capital cities so that they are more spread across the states, and for the movement of people, as well as resolving many of our issues around urban congestion. I've seen some of these examples in the US and in France. One example is Bordeaux to Paris, which is about the same distance as Mildura to Melbourne, about 5½ hours drive. But in Mildura, for example, you have no train, and from Paris to Bordeaux it's only two hours and 10 minutes. If we can do this, we can help to decentralise our cities and also decentralise our states.

It's fantastic to have seen the member for Bennelong's work in this regard with his report Building up & moving out: inquiry into the Australian government's role in the development of cities. I strongly encourage members of this place to read this wonderful report and the recommendations from it.

In my own electorate of Dunkley, which is a peri-urban seat, rail infrastructure has been one of my key focuses. And, for a project that has been talked about for over 90 years now, I'm the first in 90 years to have secured funding for the electrification and duplication of the rail line from the outer metro suburb of Frankston, in my electorate, to the inner regional town of Baxter. This is the biggest single transport infrastructure project ever in the Dunkley electorate, and it will become a reality as a result of funding commitments from the Liberal-National government at the federal level and the Liberal-National opposition at the state level.

In Dunkley, we have $228 million of budgeted funding secured through my advocacy in federal funding for this project. This has been matched by Matthew Guy and the Victorian Liberals, particularly through the efforts of Michael Lamb, the Liberal candidate for Frankston, and Donna Bauer, the Liberal candidate for Carrum. We have now a total of $453 million towards this project, which will improve connectivity, free up parking, create more than 4,000 local jobs, reduce road congestion and more. The Prime Minister visited my electorate 11 days ago to recommit to this important project, and I'm also pleased to see Michael Lamb having secured $30 million for multilevel car parking in my electorate as well, in Frankston.