This week in State Parliament – 14 April 2016
In another turbulent week in State Parliament, Liberal and Nationals MPs forced the government to abandon its attempt to prevent the return of local democracy in Geelong until 2020 and to impose a new structure for the council without community consultation.
Legislation to dismiss the council was passed late yesterday after those provisions were dropped.
We questioned why the government is refusing to accept $500 million of Commonwealth funding towards upgrading the Monash freeway. Instead the government is insisting on linking the Monash upgrade to its Western Distributor project, for which CityLink motorists will be forced pay an additional 10 years or more of tolls.
We condemned the government for abandoning its election promise to create 100,000 full time jobs within two years of being elected, instead now claiming its high profile promise was only a “stretch target”.
We demanded answers over the latest police shortages and unscheduled police station closures, which are forcing police in country Victoria to drive long distances from other towns to respond to emergency calls for help.
We also called on the government to honour its promise to compensate local traders who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of sudden changes, lack of information and other mishandling of road closures for level crossing removal works.