SUBJECTS: Labor’s investment in Perth and Campbell Town; Great Barrier Reef; Election Campaign.
BRIAN MITCHELL, MEMBER FOR LYONS: Good morning, thank you for coming. I’m Brian Mitchell, the Federal Member for Lyons. First I’d like to acknowledge that we are standing on Aboriginal land, and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. I’d like to welcome with me today Catherine King, the Shadow Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Regional Development, and Mary Knowles, the mayor of the Northern Midlands Council.
We’re here today for a major announcement in my electorate, a fantastic announcement that betters my communities. And Catherine will talk about that in a moment. Just to give some background, Perth and Campbell Town are growing communities. Here in Perth, the bypass went through about two years ago. That’s seen a change in the nature of the town. It’s a very liveable town, a very desirable town. It’s a growing community with a lot of new homes being built. So people want to love this town much more. They want a streetscape and town amenities that really bring the town together. And that’s what we’re here today to announce and Catherine King, over to you.
CATHERINE KING, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Thanks very much, Brian, and it’s really lovely to be here with you and with Mary, the Mayor here of this community. An Albanese Labor government wants to see liveable regions, we want to invest in equity in infrastructure we want to make sure that people are able to live and work in their communities. And this project is an important one for this community. A future Albanese Labor government will invest $8 million – in partnership with the council – to improve the streetscape and livability of both the cities of Perth and of Campbell Town. Villages that are growing in this community, new housing developments we’re seeing, but really, since the bypass has gone in, we want to give this heart back into the town center and make sure it’s as liveable as possible. It’s part of an Albanese Labor government’s commitment to a better future for Australian families. I might hand over to Mary, the Mayor, just to make a few comments and then I’m happy to take questions.
MARY KNOWLES, MAYOR, NORTHERN MIDLANDS COUNCIL: This is exciting news for both of our towns, Campbell Town and Perth. Perth has a lovely ambience now that the highway traffic is not going through the centre of Perth and we need to reinvigorate the town center, make the streetscape functional and right from the town entrance at the south to the train park at the north of the town and improve the pedestrian crossings. Just make it beautiful, more beautiful and have increased economic activity. And in Campbell Town the highway still goes through the center of the town but if we need to make the parking safer, much safer, and pedestrian crossing is a huge issue down there and this will be a great opportunity for both of our towns to achieve what we’d like to achieve.
JOURNALIST: What’s the population in Perth expected to grow to?
KNOWLES: Well, it’s currently around 3000 and we expect probably within 10 years it’ll be at least 6000, because the highway’s opened up new land to be developed. And it’s currently already our fastest growing town.
KING: You’ve got some national questions you want to ask?
JOURNALIST: I guess first of all, this is another indication that the election campaign is well and truly underway.
KING: Well absolutely. I think we are in well and truly in pre caretaker mode. We’ve seen Anthony’s been out there all over the summer in communities far and wide, selling the message about why a future Labor government is going to be better for Australian families then the mob we’ve got now who’s looking for a further term. They’ve already been in for nine years. Do you think they’re going to get any better? With another term? I think highly unlikely.
JOURNALIST: $1 billion is a lot of money for the reef. Is Labor committing enough in comparison?
KING: Well, the first thing I’d say is the greatest challenge that the Great Barrier Reef has is climate change. You need a government that actually has a credible climate change policy. The fact that we’ve had the Morrison government in power for nine long years and they have not got a credible policy on climate change is the reason that the reef is in trouble and they’re having to run around now trying to do something about it. Secondly, in terms of the tourism communities on the reef, they are in absolute crisis. We’ve seen the lack of support that the government has given to the tourism sector, across the country, but particularly in Queensland, no support no investment. Again, they are critical to the reef’s future as well. Labor has already made a commitment to the reef 2050 we’ll obviously examine the government’s proposals, but frankly, you’ve got to be pretty cynical about a government that has for nine long years neglected the reef, had no commitment to climate change at all – the single biggest challenge for the Great Barrier Reef.
JOURNALIST: Considering what they’ve announced, do you think Labor has put enough in?
KING: I think the Labor Party – well, I think what we’ve seen is the Morison government scrambling around and following Labor’s lead on investing in the Great Barrier Reef.
JOURNALIST: Will Labor be upping it’s commitment to the Great Barrier Reef?
KING: Labor’s certainly committed to the future of the Great Barrier Reef but making sure that we spend taxpayer funds wisely. Rather than putting half a billion dollars as we saw under the term of this government into a dodgy foundation. We think that we’ve got to invest in the tourism operators, invest in the reef, invest in agriculture and do that in a smart way. But more importantly, the thing that will save the Great Barrier Reef is a credible policy on climate change, and only an Albanese Labor Government has such
JOURNALIST: Will you take a closer look though at what the Liberal Party is promising now and look at your own?
KING: Yeah, certainly, the shadow minister will. She’ll be standing up today as well and we’ll have a look at the policies that they’ve put in place but again, I say very clearly, the single biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef is a government with no policy on climate change. And that’s what the Morrison government is
JOURNALIST: Were you surprised by the by the money that they announced?
KING: Nothing about the government surprises us particularly to be honest. You know, they are scrambling all over the place. They are a government that is in its dying days, where they are thrashing about all over the place trying to look – you know, trying to fix policies and crises of their own making. Again, I say after nine long years, does anyone think a government that is now seeking to be in office for 12 years is actually going to have a credible policy on climate change and fix the Great Barrier Reef? I think it’s unlikely. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, just back on this announcement, what’s the split between the Perth and Campbell Town?
KING: Maybe the mayor might be able to say that in terms of the eight million.
KNOWLES: I certainly think we’ll find opportunities to spend the whole $8 million and we’ll most likely need to be putting in some funds in of our own.
JOURNALIST: Sure, sure, and did I hear you say there’s going to be a pedestrian crossing in Campbelltown. Is that right?
KNOWLES: There’ll be safer crossings for pedestrians in Campbelltown – it won’t be a pedestrian crossing as such because it’s still a state growth main highway. But there will certainly be crossings here. They won’t have lights or anything but there will certainly be safer.
MITCHELL: This project has been driven from the community up. It’s not us trying to impose anything, we haven’t come at this in that way. We’ve listened to the community, we’ve listen to the council, and this has been community driven. So we’ll leave it to the community to best figure that out.
JOURNALIST: And is this really needed in Perth considering the traffic is being diverted onto the highway now?
MITCHELL: It’s still a very busy town as you see just from today, traffic’s still up and down. And as Mary says – 3,000 people now, 6,000 people probably in 10 years, its still a very busy and growing town. So this will be a great project for this town, this growing town, and in Campbell Town as well – a very busy town, anything we can do to improve the safety there, the amenity there, is warmly welcomed by the community.
KNOWLES: Back in May 2021, Council endorsed a concept plan for what we’d like to do in Perth and put it out to the community for comment. We had 97 comments from this community so that shows huge community interest in what we’d like to do.
KING: Lovely, thanks everyone for coming out.
ENDS
KING & MITCHELL – TRANSCRIPT – DOORSTOP – PERTH, TASMANIA – FRIDAY 28 JANUARY 2022
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