Tuesday, 31 October 2023

Cloverton infrastructure

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:49): (555) My adjournment is directed to the Minister for Planning and Minister for the Suburbs, and the action I seek of the minister is to explain what the government is doing to ensure that the growing suburb of Cloverton in my electorate will have adequate infrastructure before residents move in. According to reports, Cloverton could service a population of 380,000 people. That is in the order of an additional Canberra in the northern suburbs. On many occasions I have called for infrastructure – community infrastructure and public transport infrastructure – to be delivered in advance of communities moving in, including in this place. Whilst there are many occasions Labor have failed in this regard, we cannot do anything about the past, but we do have an opportunity to do something now in this developing area. We do not want a situation in Cloverton like that taking place in Kalkallo, where residents spend an inordinate amount of time in their cars – up to an hour and a half – just to get out of their housing estate.

I want to applaud local Ally Watson for her work in leading a petition calling on the state government to duplicate Donnybrook Road, which was even sponsored by the ALP member for Kalkallo in the Legislative Assembly. They are broke, so they do not have any money to duplicate Donnybrook Road. The member was happy to sponsor a petition calling on her own government, in which she serves as a member of the cabinet, to duplicate Donnybrook Road, but they cannot, because they are broke. The reality is that locals like Ally should not have to beg for the government to provide infrastructure like the duplication of Donnybrook Road, which is basically an old farm track with tens of thousands of homes built across it. Locals should not have to beg. They rightly expect their infrastructure to be delivered before they move in or as they move in. 380,000 people in one city – the Northern Hospital is already under stress, and it is expected to serve an additional Canberra-sized population?

I do seek the action of the minister to explain what steps she is taking to ensure that residents have access to roads and have access to public transport. We see Wallan and Donnybrook – the area that was promised Lockerbie station a long time ago – still serviced by V/Line. It is the fastest growing commuter rail service in Australia only because the government has failed to deliver electrification to all these growing suburbs tens of thousands of people are moving into. Where are the schools going to come from? Where is the amenity going to come from? I seek action to know what planning instruments the government will use to ensure that appropriate infrastructure is in place and what funding will be allocated for this purpose.