Lake Wendouree lighting project
Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (17:29): (834) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Regional Development, and it relates to the Lake Wendouree lighting project in Ballarat, which the state government contributed $2.5 million to. Since the official opening of the troubled project it has been plagued with challenges. Only a couple of weeks ago locals, in the local media, reported that a number of lights were actually failing – they just did not work. No-one knows why; they just did not work. Just this week, in fact two days ago, it was reported in local media that the Ballarat City Council has revealed that all the safety switches on the lights have to be redone at a cost that is very significant. The action that I seek from the minister is, one, to conduct a review of how the project went so wrong, specifically given that the state government contributed $2.5 million to this project; and secondly, that the government apologise to the people of the Ballarat community for having a project in place that clearly is not serving its purpose. Less than six months after it was opened it is just an absolute disgrace. The thing is, locals actually raised big issues before the project was completed and as the project was being completed, and they were continually ignored. I even spoke to an expert electrical contractor this morning who said they had spoken to a number of people both in the City of Ballarat and in the state government saying that what was planned would not work. What happened? It was ignored again. And what is the result? We have got a shoddy project in Ballarat – around the crown of Ballarat, Lake Wendouree – and it is a dud project.