Thursday, 17 October 2024

Ringwood East train station

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:14): (1205) The matters I raise tonight are on behalf of the Ringwood East Traders Association. I have risen many times in this place to talk about their plight, and in particular what they are seeking from Minister Pearson are a number of things. They have kindly requested a detailed update in respect to the expected timeline for the completion of all the car parks. Those who are watching this might recall that some time ago the station was declared open. Well, it is far from open. The works continue to this day, and the concern is at this point that those works may well bleed into Christmas and then into next year and we still will be no closer to actually having a finished and finalised train station at Ringwood East. In addition to that, the traders are very keen to understand from the minister what the projected date for the removal of the scaffolding from the station is, something that I would have thought is not too hard to ascertain. Third, and not last, they would also like to know what the schedule for the opening of Railway Avenue is. Railway Avenue is a critical avenue of course for those shop traders; their livelihood depends upon it. Fourth, they also seek to understand what measures are being taken to mitigate the impact, the ongoing impact – despite the so-called ‘opening’ of the station – on the traders themselves during this period.

The traders wrote to the minister back in August of this year and had a number of suggestions, including supporting them during Father’s Day. Well, Father’s Day has come and gone, and there was no support. We do have Halloween, so perhaps that is the next occasion. Then we have Christmas. But at that point God forbid we are still talking about the fact that the station has not actually been finished and the works are actually continuing and are continuing to impede the operation of the traders, very many of whom are small businesses whose livelihoods rely upon their trade, to say nothing of the inconvenience to the locals of course in Ringwood East throughout the entire period.

It is also very odd to me that the community liaison group established for the very purpose of being that interface between the construction and the community finished its work back in July, and yet some months later the work is ongoing, and in fact in every likelihood it will go into next year. The very liaison group established to provide contact and to provide coordination and communication was shut down in July.

Minister, my strongest possible suggestion is that the action you should take on this regard is to reignite that liaison group. It is an important group. At the very least, what they could advise you, Minister, is instead of investing your money in a turtle – a 2.5-metre by 2-metre turtle – probably worth tens of thousands of dollars, what you could have done is invest that money in one singular toilet for all of the public in Ringwood East: one toilet, not a turtle. It is not a hard prospect; it is not a hard concept for anyone to understand. Minister, you have a choice when it comes to Halloween. Either be the Dracula and go out there and suck the remaining blood out of the community or be Casper the ghost and go and give them some support they desperately require.