Wednesday, 1 May 2024

Department of Treasury and Finance

Budget papers 2023–24

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:39): I rise today to speak on the Victorian budget papers 2023–24, specifically in relation to how this government is investing in our growing suburbs. I represent an area of the south-east of Melbourne – which I am very proud to represent. I am proud to represent it for many reasons. It is obviously my favourite part of the world. It is where I am from. It is a dynamic, wonderful multicultural community, but it is also a growing community, and it is a community that as it grows, as growing communities invariably do, has challenges. That is why I am so excited to be part of a Labor team but also more importantly in this place to be able to advocate for that community and fight for the services and the infrastructure that places such as the south-east, such as suburbs like Clyde North, need as they grow, build and develop.

It is wonderful to see across a range of portfolio areas improvements and investments in areas such as Clyde North – look at the Topirum Primary School, which just opened earlier this year, I think the third new primary school to have opened in Clyde North in just the past few years. Recently as well with Mr Tarlamis I got to visit the onsite kindergarten being built at that same primary school, which is a terrific initiative of this government. By co-locating kinders at primary schools where there is space to do so, we are eliminating double drop-off but also providing that really encouraging educational experience for our kids in early childhood education, as they can see their bigger siblings or their other peers in the playground next door and look forward to primary school and feel a little bit more comfortable and safe as they do so. Whether it is the hospitals, whether it is the roads, a range of investments are taking place.

Today, though, I would like to speak about a topic that is very close to my heart, and that is bus services. I referred to buses in my inaugural speech in this place. Indeed it was buses that first inspired me to come into the political process here – advocating for a route when I was a teenager. The provision of bus services to communities, as I have seen from firsthand experience, can have such a profound impact on all people but especially on young people or those people who might not otherwise have those opportunities to travel to the local jobs, to the local schools, to the services or even social opportunities that they may have or desire.

That is why I particularly welcomed the news just in the last week that through the Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution Fund there is an absolute raft of new services being proposed in the south-east, which is going to make a huge difference to people in Clyde North, to people in Berwick and to people in Officer as well. We are going to see the extension of route 831 from Berwick down to Clyde North through the new Bells Road. We are going to see an extension of route 798 from Cranbourne through to Clyde North as well. And the really great thing about that is that they are two different routes. The 831 will be a north–south route; the 798 will be an east–west route. It is really important that as we grow these suburbs the connectivity is not just a single point of entry. By having better quality services to different directions, we can actually get that genuine network effect out of our suburban public transport, and it is a really, really encouraging thing to see. We know of course that the majority of Melburnians – indeed the majority of Victorians – do not live within walking distance of a railway station or a tram stop, and that is why buses are such an important part of our transport mix and they always will be. For suburbs such as Clyde North or Berwick or Officer, which will also benefit from the extension of routes 925 and 928, these are going to be transformational improvements.

It has been a privilege to work on campaigning for these services alongside my colleagues in the lower house the member for Pakenham and the member for Bass, and I would like to acknowledge both the current Minister for Public and Active Transport Minister Williams and also her predecessor Minister Carroll, who was good enough to give us plenty of time for discussion of these and similar proposals. I would also like to acknowledge the advocacy of the City of Casey and in particular the Shire of Cardinia, who have for several years been campaigning for better buses as perhaps their most important priority from a state perspective. In particular I acknowledge the hard work of current mayor Cr Jack Kowarzik and also last year’s mayor Cr Tammy Radford, who were instrumental in driving forward that push from the council perspective.

The service upgrades that were announced affect a wide range of our growth areas right across the city, but for our area, the best part of the world in the south-east of Melbourne, it is terrific to see these service improvements coming through and the absolute difference that they will make for communities like mine, which I am privileged to represent.