Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Greenvale Reservoir Park

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (19:21): (1315) My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Water. The good people of the neglectorate of Greenvale have had a terrific win. As you would know, I have spoken almost every week in this place about the need to open up the Greenvale Reservoir Park, the southern section, for people to enjoy. You have got the government putting in new housing estate after new housing estate and not providing a commensurate amount of open space. I know many in our multicultural community have spoken to me and advocated, and I have advocated on their behalf, to open up this reservoir as they have long memories from over 10 years ago when it was open for cultural barbecues, family days and festivities. Many people had their first childhood memories there, of seeing their first kangaroo. I have got a lot of Italian family up there and used to go there as a child, and I enjoyed it as well with the community.

I want to acknowledge the more than 1300 local residents who signed my online petition to open up the Greenvale Reservoir Park. I want to thank them and the community, the Greenvale Residents Association, for their advocacy, because finally the Minister for Water came out to Greenvale to announce that they would be delivering on their promise to reopen the park. I was thinking, ‘When was that promise? When did it actually happen?’ She announced funding of $3 million to reopen the park. I looked back and I found a media release from January 2017 announcing that they would be providing $1.4 million to improve access at Somerton Road and allow for greater green space at the Greenvale Reservoir Park. So they already made the promise back in 2017. It never happened. Dam wall works were completed in 2018, and the government has been sitting on its hands ever since. It is only since my advocacy that they have been rushing to make this announcement.

I seek the action of the minister to provide a timeframe, which they have never done and they did not do in their subsequent media. We have had broken promise after broken promise in regard to the Greenvale Reservoir reserve. I would like to enlighten the Minister for Water, who would be interested to know that her colleague the Minister for Environment was forced into an embarrassing backdown after boasting about funding for the new toilets at the northern section of the park, because I saw their release included funding for new toilets. He said there were two new toilets in the northern section of the park. I questioned him on this, and he was forced to make that embarrassing backdown. I want to also seek action on whether the toilets will be real, whether the picnic areas will be proper and whether the new footpaths will not be covered and broken up like they are at the northern section. It is a great win for my community in Greenvale, and it only happens with Liberal advocacy.