The Hon Catherine King MP
Press Conference, Melton
SAM RAE [FEDERAL MEMBER FOR HAWKE]: …We're here in the seat of Hawk. I am Sam Rae, the Federal member for Hawke. I'm very happy to be here today. I'm joined by two wonderful ministers, the Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Minister Catherine King and the state minister, Minister Gabrielle Williams. And as you can see, I have a whole host of colleagues from both local government, state government and federal Labor with us here as well. And I'm going to run through - I'm going to look over my shoulder while I do it so I don't miss anybody. We've got the Member for Melton, Steve McGhie here. We have Melton Mayor Steve Abboushi. We have Dr Phillip Zader from LeadWest. We have Brendan O'Connor, the Member for Gorton, a long standing member for Gorton. We have Alice Jordan-Baird, our fantastic new candidate for Gorton. And as I said, the two ministers who are here with us today, we've got a very exciting announcement about the Western Freeway. We stood here on the Western Freeway just before the last election. I stood here with Minister King, and we announced that the Labor government, state and federal, would work together to get a business case done to upgrade the Western freeway. And today is a very exciting announcement, building upon that, the delivery of that business case just before Christmas. So hand over to Minister King, great. Thanks so much.
CATHERINE KING [MINISTER]: Thanks so much, Sam. And it's terrific to be here with state and local government colleagues, because really, this is a partnership about how we actually get good infrastructure in place for our growing suburbs, and this is a terrific announcement today that we're making alongside the Victorian Government. This is one of the busiest highways in the state. It is an incredibly important freight route. I live down the other end, down Ballarat end, and used to represent the people of Stawell. Sam and Alice and Brendan and Steve all live around this part of the world, and they know we've seen significant growth. There are thousands of people traveling on this road every single day, and the road hasn't quite kept up with the amount of housing development that we've seen in this area. So today, we're announcing $1.1 billion from the federal government, a decision of government to invest in the Western Highway, in particular, the billion dollars will go towards the Melton and Caroline Springs area, where we know there has been significant growth and there needs to be upgrades in order to keep up with the amount of housing than the amount of people using this road, that work has been underway. As Sam said, the business case has been completed. We needed to make sure we had a good understanding of what are the things that you can do to improve this corridor. $100 million is to go down to the other end of the highway, down to Brewery Tap Road, and there's also work to be done on additional bridges. This brings the Commonwealth's total investment in the Western Freeway, Western Highway, to just over $2 billion. We know how important this road is from a freight and logistics point of view, but we also know how important it is to be able to get people to work. I think all of us here use this road on a regular basis. We know what happens from 6am to 9:30am in the morning and when people are trying to get home, that tail back, getting back into Melton in particular, but the Rock Bank area, this is a significant and serious investment from the Albanese Labor Government to make sure we improve these corridors. I do want to particularly welcome both LeadWest and the Melton Council here today, who have been advocating alongside our state and federal members, Sam, Brendan and Steve as well, to advocate for this road project. And I'll hand over to Gab for a minute, and then I think the mayor will say a few words, and then we'll take some questions. Thanks, Gab.
GABRIELLE WILLIAMS [STATE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE]: Thank you. Thanks, minister, and thank you for being here to make what is a wonderful announcement. And can I say how great it is for us as the Allan Labor government to have a partner in Canberra that has been something that has been missing in Victoria for the best part of 10 years. Victorians have been short changed to the tune of billions by successive Liberal National Coalition Governments, and finally, with the Albanese Government, we have a partner, a partner willing to work with us, willing to invest with us on the projects that matter most to Victorians. So, the $1.1 billion announced today is a very welcome investment in one of Melbourne's fastest growing areas. People love living in the west, that's the reality, and the population growth shows that. But as Minister King has outlined, we need to make sure that the surrounding infrastructure also keeps pace with that growth, and that we're investing where it's most needed, in our community, and out here in the west is a perfect example of that. Minister King also outlined that this has been a partnership with the state government for some time in doing that essential planning work to make sure that we understand where the priorities and the needs are along what is a very long stretch of road in the Western Highway all the way to Adelaide, and making sure that we can deliver the greatest value where it's needed most. That work has allowed us now, with a funding commitment from the Commonwealth, to then fine tune and determine exactly what that will look like. Now that we've got the dollars attached, we can go back to that business case and look at the options that have been put forward in that and start to select our solutions and get moving, most importantly, on the project to deliver the congestion busting solutions that we know this project will deliver, making life easier for people in Melbourne's west making that commute much easier, and basically catering to the growth that we know is taking place out here in Melbourne's western suburbs. Can I also thank the many representatives we have here across local and state and federal governments, as well as LeadWest, we have an incredible team of advocates here in Melbourne's west, those who live in their suburbs, they know their suburbs, and they know and understand the needs. And again, can I say a big thank you to the federal government for partnering with us, for being a part of the solution to being able to meet the growth in Melbourne's outer suburbs, and for finally giving Victoria its fair share of infrastructure funding. Steve
STEVE ABBOUSHI [MAYOR OF MELTON]: Council is very thankful for the recent announcement for the $1.1 billion upgrade. We - it's been - formed part of our main advocacy priorities for more than nine to 10 years. And finally, we're seeing, you know, a western upgrade highway going to mean so much for our community. I'd like to thank the state and federal government for partnering with council. We would - we just had a meeting with residents last week around providing a voice for our community on their concerns to the Western Highway. Last year, we had the business case, and now we've got an announcement. So, this is what it means to partner, and this is what happens when you partner. It means that our community will see delivery, we'll see safety. And we're very, very thankful for this announcement, and we look forward to hearing more about what it means for our community. Thanks very much.
JOURNALIST: I’ve got some questions for Minister Catherine King, please. Can you provide us with a breakdown of the $1.1 billion?
CATHERINE KING: …So $1 billion is going on the Melton Caroline Springs area. And Minister Williams might talk a little bit more about the business case. There's been a number of options put forward as part of the business case, and we'll now go back and fine tune those, to select the projects, but to do a little bit of work to get there, but we're not far off. And then there's $100 million for Brewery Tap Road just as you head into Ballarat. And then there's also $6.1 million to fix two bridges, one around Dadswell Creek and Dimboola is the other one. Those projects have been in planning for a while. They're not they're ready to go. They'll start this year. And then, obviously, there is also money that is already in the Western Highway corridor. And so there's a number of projects that will continue. There's one down at Pykes Creek, and there's further ones further down along Stawell. And those projects will continue as well.
JOURNALIST: And what will it actually improve? Is it like a few barriers or?
CATHERINE KING: So, there's a range of things. So obviously there's some safety work that can be done fairly quickly. So that's, you know, widening shoulders, looking at the road resurfacing where that needs to happen. But when you're looking at things like as part of the project, when you're looking at like, you know, more interchanges, they are a bit more complex and take a bit more time to do. But I might ask Minister Williams to talk about more of the data, sure.
GABRIELLE WILLIAMS: and look in part, it's a bit of a process question. So what we do when we partner with the Commonwealth to do the planning for this project is look at where, if you like, the biggest choking points were across the Western Highway, where population growth was, meaning that there was particularly acute points of congestion, and then therefore working out where the priorities were. What engineers tend to do is never come to the table with just one option, but come to the table with multiple different options for each priority site. What we can now do, though, that we have a financial commitment money on the table, is go back and start working through the options that we've been provided and ensuring that we're choosing the best possible ones within our funding envelope, and making sure that we've got those priorities right now. So this cash injection of $1.1 billion and now allows us to get going and get shovels in the ground and make sure we're choosing from those options, the best possible ones to meet the priorities that have been identified through that through that process. So Minister King has outlined where some of those, some of the other funding will go, in terms of Dimboola and Dadswell Bridge, and we will now be hard at work in partnership with the Commonwealth Government to go back to that, that planning that business case and then working out from the options that we've been provided, which ones will deliver the best outcomes for our communities out here in Melbourne's west.
JOURNALIST: Sure, about the Brewery Tap Road.
GABRIELLE WILLIAMS: Yep, there's some upgrades going there.
JOURNALIST: Can you go into more detail?
GABRIELLE WILLIAMS: I'll tell you what I reckon Minister King is the expert on Brewery Tap Road.
CATHERINE KING: So when, when, when the Western highway, it's years ago now. So I've been driving this road for a long, long time. So there was always meant to be some treatment down at that Warrenheip section. And we know now that what's happened there, you've got a service station. You've got a very old hotel on one side that's now been closed but still utilised at certain times. You've got a school up in Warrenheip as well. You've got an industrial precinct. And what's happening is, increasingly, we've got truck traffic using that intersection, crossing over the highway, and it's really become quite a significant safety concern. We'll have to work with the Victorian Government about this. Again, engineers have come up with a range of solutions for the particular site, but what we're committing to as part of the $1.1 billion is $100 million to do both the planning, the early services work, and to really start to get moving, to try and deal with that intersection, which, again, has been, you know, really, one of the projects along the highway that has been needed for quite some time, but hasn't had, but hasn't had the funding to actually deliver an upgrade there. And that's what we're doing today.
JOURNALIST: just on the federal election coming up. Is this an attempt to sort of show up support for the government?
CATHERINE KING: Well, can I just remind people what's happened here is that three years ago, both Labor federally and at the state, we weren't in government, then came together and said, we know we've got a problem here. This isn't a problem the previous LNP government had identified at all. They completely neglected the west, and in fact, neglected Victoria. When we came, and I'll just remind people, when we came to office, I think the investment from the federal government in Victoria was around about $17 billion. This announcement today brings it up to $24 billion. We've done that in a term of government. And so what we had three years ago was no one other than the Victorian Government, saying we got some problems here. Can you come and partner with us? So what we've done is do the business case, which we want to make sure we understand. How do you fix these problems? These are not new, but they are complex problems when you've got a highway of this nature that now is reaching capacity. And so we've started this work three years ago. This today, we're making an announcement as a decision of government. We're not in an election campaign yet that we are putting $1.1 billion now in to actually get this work progress. That's what this is about, and a billion dollars will go a long way to addressing many of the problems along the highway that we've been working together on for some time now.
JOURNALIST: And just one more question for me, how concerned is the government about losing Labor votes in the Melbourne south and west?
CATHERINE KING: Well, can I just say that every seat matters. Every seat, whether it's west, whether it's in the east, whether it's in Victoria or right the way across the country. We are very determined that the work that we have done as a country together to get the economy back on track, to make sure that we're actually getting inflation down. We're keeping people employed. We're actually investing in the future. Every single seat matters. Every seat matters. The west matters. The east matters. But I know we have got the best member in Sam Rae. We've got the best candidate in Alice. She's going to make an amazing member for Gorton, following, of course, in the footsteps of the fabulous - my fabulous friend and colleague, Brendan O'Connor, who I will miss dearly, but know is going to go on to wonderful things. We have got terrific advocates here in this community. And the only reason, the only reason this announcement is being made today is because the people behind me care about their communities. They care about the west, and we care about it, too.