Thursday, 28 November 2024

North-Eastern Metropolitan Region

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:14): (1309) You can imagine my surprise when at a school assembly on Monday, after we presented some awesome students with Aussie of the Month awards, lo and behold, who was there but the level crossing removal authority. What were they there to do, I hear you ask? That is a really good question. They were there to present the award winner – and not to belittle for one moment but in fact to champion the award winner, because they did a sensational drawing – who had entered into Level Crossing Removal Project drawing competition for a turtle. This is, if you are not familiar with this story, the turtle the state government paid for using taxpayers money at Ringwood East train station even though they will not provide a toilet. But it gets better. Guess what, the turtle has been installed. In installing the turtle, the government have now installed it so low that actually they cannot put the legs or the head on the turtle, so they are going to have to get the crane to come back, lift the turtle up and put its legs on its head, because they are worried kids are going to go under the turtle and get stuck. My question to the Minister for Health is: was she ever consulted on the absence of a toilet for Ringwood East train station when it was designed, implemented and built?