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Legislative Assembly
 
REVITALISATION PROGRAM

20 March 2019
Members statements
Frank McGuire  (ALP)

 


Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:09:01): Australians are overwhelmingly practical people, not ideological. They want politics to be a contest of ideas that resolves matters in the national and community interest to increase prosperity and a fair go. Inequality, especially place-based disadvantage, must be addressed in upcoming budgets and the Australian election. This is why I have produced the strategies Creating Opportunity: Postcodes of Hope and Building Smarter Cities—Stronger Communities, to deliver economic and cultural development where the need is most significant. They feature initiatives to attract new industries and jobs to save a fortune by coordinating affordable housing alongside blue-chip infrastructure to create much-sought-after 20-minute suburbs. Closing the infrastructure gap is vital. A city deal based on productivity, livability and sustainability would provide an overarching mechanism. It would leverage assets and create billions of dollars in economic value. My proposal is to designate 20-minute cities to fast-track projects where residents can work and get most of the services they need close to home, reducing congestion and increasing livability. Priority precincts would include Sunshine, Broadmeadows, La Trobe University and Clayton to harness economic engine rooms and anchor two $15 billion developments of national significance. Australian and Victorian governments have unity tickets to end the half-century wait for the rail line to Melbourne Airport and build the missing link in Melbourne’s road network—the north-east link. Need is vital and urgent. Melbourne’s north and west are home to postcodes of disadvantage, struggling under deindustrialisation and historic investment deficits.