Hansard debates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:01): I am delighted to announce the next instalment in the big-picture vision to revitalise Broadmeadows. Works on more than $1 million for improvements to the Broadmeadows railway station and to make it safer for passengers begin within days. This is part of the $14.3 million investment from the Andrews Labor government, and it is part of the broader revitalisation of the Broadmeadows precinct to cater for increased population growth and to position Broadmeadows as a key hub in Melbourne’s north.

This is why it beggars belief that the City of Hume did not apply for funding from the Victorian government’s Growing Suburbs Fund for these projects. I have been advised that the Revitalising Broadmeadows report, which included and in fact featured the redevelopment of this, complied with these imperatives and would have been a higher value for funding, in my view. It would also add to my campaign to have Broadmeadows featured in the Australian government’s proposed city deal for Melbourne’s north and west.

So I call on the Hume City Council to expand these applications and to include Broadmeadows rather than excluding these vulnerable communities from funding opportunities to support the strategies that I have been pursuing for decades now, long before I was even in this Parliament. That has actually resulted in a $500 million investor coming for the Ford sites, and that will bring back the new industries and jobs—and Broadmeadows is the priority one to deliver such results, which are the best value for spend, are in the public interest and will deliver opportunity.