NORTH-EAST: McLeish queries cutbacks
Eildon MLA Cindy McLeish (pictured) says the State Labor Government continues a program of funding cutbacks.
“We have had $8 million slashed from primary prevention, with $24 million from service delivery,” Ms McLeish told Parliament.
“One of the things that bothers me greatly is that the Allan Labor Government have failed organisations that do a good job.
“Now they have failed Safe Steps. Safe Steps needed $3.9 million to operate 28 new
high-security crisis centre shelter units funded by the Federal Government.
“The Federal Government thought it was a great initiative to fund these new units for people at that really pointy end of being in need in a crisis.
“This shelter could accommodate nearly 1000 women and children each year, but the
government could not find it within themselves to find $3.9 million to help Safe Steps. “It is not a huge sum. They have a great record. They have got the runs on the board to show how well they do.
“A $30 million cut to the court system means that those that are going to court are waiting longer and sometimes being subjected to very harsh and trying conditions for that longer period of time.
“Locally, not much happened in my electorate. We have had emergency services screaming for upgrades.
“The Mansfield SES has been on the radar for at least a decade, and the ambulance station.
“They are both outdated and outmoded and need to be rebuilt in the emergency services precinct that Mansfield have identified.
“Hoddles Creek CFA: I think maybe – this is really a maybe only of this week – things are starting to move again after such a long period of time.
“I know the late former captain Leonie Turner did so much to push that, and the brigade, in honouring her, are continuing to do so.
“We might finally get a station there. There are sporting clubs that need upgrades that were left out.
“Wesburn Junior Football Club at Queens Park, Healesville, are getting a little bit of money now, but not a lot.
“We have got school projects that we need. Wesburn Primary School have been desperate to have electronic flashing speed signs at the front of the school.
“And the roads – goodness me, the roads budget. The budget revealed road patching targets have been cut by 93 per cent. “Road patching is only filling in a little bit here and there. Whilst we have had some work done in my area on one part of the Melba Highway, not all of it, it is starting to fall apart again quite quickly.
“On the Goulburn Valley Highway between Yarck and Mansfield, there are some terrible spots at Maindample near Bonnie Doon, near Yarck, that are in great need of work.
“Don Valley had a real patch-up job on Don Rd there.
“The Whittlesea-Yea Rd had little bits of patching but not enough. Pedestrian safety in Hurstbridge needs to be improved. “There are some simple, cheap alternatives there for the government to do things, to slow traffic, to make things slower, because Hurstbridge is a little village, and it has got a fairly main road.
“It is a busy road as people go through it sometimes going way too fast heading up the Heidelberg-Kinglake Road there.
“We have got roads in the Yarra Valley, including the Warburton Highway, that need work.
“The government just do a little bit and try and say they have done a great job, but it is not cutting the mustard.
“We know that we have been neglected, people in the country. Even as recently as this week there were newspaper articles saying that they feel left behind.
“I will tell you we are left behind, because all the money is going into big projects in the city, the Premier’s pet projects, and not helping those in the country, where the people from the city like to go and visit and recreate,” Ms McLeish said.