Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Infrastructure projects

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:25): (1476) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Local Government. Minister, the people of Newport and Hobsons Bay are up in arms over your government’s Level Crossing Removal Project, which would permanently close Champion Road and split their community. The reason this concerns me, however, is not the detail of the project, it is what it says about the Allan Labor government’s attitude to local councils. As the Age reports, Hobsons Bay council staff were pressured to sign confidentiality agreements just to access basic project details. The council’s infrastructure director refused to sign because the information did not warrant secrecy.

This follows a disturbing pattern of your government’s Big Build projects burying the truth, with thousands of gag orders on the North East Link and now even charities silenced on the Suburban Rail Loop. Even local Labor state and federal members are questioning this project. The Premier claimed to be listening to the people following Labor’s collapse in the Werribee by-election, so why the gag orders? Even Labor MPs Tim Watts and Melissa Horne are now begging you to rethink this flawed plan, but your government seems hell-bent on steamrolling ahead. Ms Horne is a cabinet minister here in Victoria, not a backbench MP, and yet even she is criticising the Level Crossing Removal Project’s efforts to gag Hobson Bay council officers. She said:

Clear communication and transparency with the local community should be key to delivering this project and anything less is unacceptable …

Minister, local councillors unanimously voted to cut meetings with the level crossing removal team because their input has been ignored and will now be interacting with them only in writing. Given the army of spin doctors, consultants and community relations managers the Level Crossing Removal Project employs, is it not disgraceful that they cannot manage their relationship with a single significant stakeholder, the council?

The North East Link Program’s 7000 non-disclosure agreements include local governments like Banyule and Whitehorse. The SRL proposed bribing local councils, including Hume city and Casey city, with agreements barring criticism of the project in exchange for grants. Minister, you rightly require local governments to be transparent in their dealings. The action I seek is for you to request that each Victorian local council provides a list of all the non-disclosure agreements signed with the state government agencies and to then work with your cabinet colleagues to ensure this list is cut and local councils are once more treated as respected partners, not opponents, by this state government.