Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Western suburbs

Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) (20:26): (2143) I wish to raise a matter this evening for the attention of the Premier. In the 16 years that I have represented Melbourne’s west in this place it has been my very, very deep concern that there has been significant disadvantage among my constituents in the western suburbs compared with perhaps the eastern suburbs, the leafy green suburbs of the east, as we have often heard them referred to, or the southern suburbs for that matter or even some of the northern suburbs—I will throw the lot in. It seems to me that we have seen a lot of the western suburbs getting a raw deal for a very, very long time. We just do not get our fair go. It is almost as if we do not pay taxes and so we are not entitled to largesse from the government. I have no doubt this is largely because there are no marginal seats out there. I would say almost certainly that is what it is about, because we know at the beginning of every election campaign we see both the ALP and the Liberals saying, ‘That’s the western suburbs. They’re going to vote either for us or against us. We don’t worry about them at all’. They are off the planning board altogether. So perhaps if I could—and I know I cannot—I would also address this matter to Matthew Guy as opposition leader.

What I am asking the Premier to do is to give us a fair go. Give us some of our money back, which is being spent over the other side of Melbourne. We in the west have worked hard and we have paid huge sums in stamp duty. The development in the western suburbs is quite extraordinary, and the amount of money that is going into government coffers as a result of that development is quite extraordinary. But do we see any of it back? Not on your Nellie. That is not going to happen anytime soon. What I am asking the Premier to do is to balance the ledger, to give the western suburbs their fair share. We have got a Minister for Equality. How about a bit of equality for the western suburbs? That would not go astray. That would be very, very good indeed. What I am hopeful the Premier will do, when he is allocating billions of dollars for this and billions of dollars for that in the lead-up to this election, is keep in mind that people in the western suburbs are Victorians too and that we need and we deserve a fair go. I am hopeful that the people in the west will actually change their voting patterns this time and make it a bit more marginal. But even if they do not, I ask the Premier to give us a fair go.