MPs cross words on intersection

By Jim Mynard
EUMEMMERRING MP Gordon RichPhillips has slammed the Bracks Government for what he says is a continuing failure to provide vital infrastructure in the Gembrook electorate.
Speaking in the Parliament this week Mr RichPhillips said that for the last five years residents and traders had been calling for a solution to the problem of traffic congestion at the Clyde Road/Enterprise Avenue intersection.
“While the ultimate solution to the problem is a multimillion dollar grade separation, following a public meeting in February 2005 VicRoads proposed the installation of traffic lights as an interim solution to the traffic problem at this intersection at an estimated cost of $1.5 million,” he said.
“The Berwick Village Chamber of Commerce then undertook to raise the required funds from local traders and stakeholders, including Monash University and Chisholm Institute of TAFE, as well as a contribution from the Victorian Government.
“Unfortunately the Bracks Government has seized on the word ‘interim’ and is using this as an excuse not to put money into these traffic lights.
“In the meantime, motorists risk their lives every day at this intersection, and unfortunately one day the inevitable will happen.
“When it does I hope the bereaved family understands that their loved one died simply because the intersection did not stack up under VicRoads’ ‘costratio benefit’ theory.
“Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato is also to be condemned for leaving it to her electorate officer to inform the chamber that the one letting the side down would be her own government.
“The Member for Gembrook is more than happy to make herself available for photo opportunities when there is good news, but sends her electorate officer to convey bad news.”
Ms Lobato said she was unable to attend the chamber meeting, at which her electorate officer spoke on her behalf because her daughter was ill.
Mr RichPhillips said he accepted that but insisted that she wasn’t around when the State Government said it would not fund the Bryn Mawr Bridge at Berwick.
“She also left the Victoria Police to defend the shortage of police at Emerald,” he said.
Ms Lobato said that she did not wish to respond to Mr RichPhillip’s comment at this stage because she had been working closely with the Transport Minister Peter Batchelor in an effort to find a solution to the Enterprise Avenue problem.
Ms Lobato said, however, that she had never said the intersection would not be funded and that she had met with Mr Batchelor only last week.
She said she wanted Mr RichPhillips to say who had informed him that the government had refused to fund the intersection.
“I do not believe his comment is accurate,” she said.
Mr RichPhillips said that, if comment attributed to Ms Lobato in the media were true, he was not surprised she stayed away from the meeting.
“She obviously does not know where she stands on the matter,” he said. “On one hand she is saying people will now say that providing the traffic signals is a State Government responsibility, and in the next breath she is saying she needed to make it clear that the idea of getting stakeholder contributions was not to say this was not a State Government responsibility.
“Acting on behalf of the local traders, the Berwick Village Chamber of Commerce has adopted a very restrained, professional approach in its effort to find a solution to this intersection.
“Unfortunately now, not only is it back to square one, but it has also joined the long list of other Gembrook residents being led down the garden path by Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato.”