Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Mordialloc electorate level crossing removals

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:07): (1004) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and the action I seek is an update for the Mordialloc constituency on the progress of level crossing removal works in Mordialloc and Aspendale and the timeframes for those removals. We have seen early works get underway in Mordialloc and Aspendale, with service assessments in water, in gas, in electricity and in combined services routes. This is muscle memory for our community, who have seen level crossing removals in Chelsea, in Edithvale, in Parkdale, in Mentone and in Cheltenham, because in our community Labor is delivering each and every day, making it easier and safer for people to get to where they need to get to safer and sooner.

The Aspendale and Mordialloc level crossings are really important connectors in our local community. There are two level crossings, Bear Street that will close and McDonald that will be removed with an elevated rail, and then Station Street, Aspendale, opposite the magnificent and recently 100-year-old Mordialloc College has been a divider in our community for many decades. Over 12,000 vehicle movements pass through there each and every day. It is one of the more dangerous ones left on the alignment. It comes on the back of the completion of elevated rail works at Parkdale, where we have seen Parkers Road and Warrigal Road removed and the significant transformation that has achieved.

We heard every bit over the last number of years, and I remember back to former Premier Napthine saying that the removal of level crossings was not possible – you could not remove 50 level crossings.

Pauline Richards interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: He said we were dreaming, as the member for Cranbourne says. We were dreaming about removing these level crossings. Yet now we see the coalition commentating on them – how they should be removed, what they should look like – and opposing them half the time in my area. Then we see now the transformation that comes from making those decisions and fronting up to community and demonstrating the benefits.

Mordialloc is such a significant part of our local community, really the jewel of the City of Kingston. It is a magnificent place to gather and come together in the community – so really critical. We have seen early works get underway. We have seen tree removals during this time at Groves Reserve, and this has had a big impact on my local community. We have seen a lot of vegetation taken out. Some of these banksia trees are of huge significance to the local community. I acknowledge that there is a significant amount of concern – grief – that goes with losing some of these significant environmental assets that people have come to know and that have stood the test of time for decades. We have done everything we can to mitigate that impact, but I can assure community that of the 260 significant trees in Groves Reserve, a hundred or so are being removed and everything will be planted like for like. And then we will see 85,000 trees and shrubs planted through that time. We are underway with the early works, and I am looking forward to an update from the minister on the progress of these works.