The Labor Opposition has taken Wandong and Heathcote Junction families’ fight for natural gas to State Parliament demanding the Baillieu Government make good on its promise to connect the towns.
Shadow Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Jacinta Allan and Member for Northern Victoria, Candy Broad raised resident concerns directly with Rural and Regional Development Minister Peter Ryan in Parliament.
“Days out from the election last year, in a desperate attempt to gain votes for Liberal candidate Cindy McLeish, Mr Baillieu promised to connect Wandong and Heathcote Junction residents to gas,” Ms Allan said.
“Ms McLeish distributed a flyer saying that ‘a Baillieu Government will work with the Mitchell Shire Council to ensure delivery of natural gas to Wandong/Heathcote Junction, through the Coalition’s announced Energy for Regionals program.
“Despite this promise, these communities have not been included in the Liberal-National Government’s list of 12 towns to be connected.
“The Baillieu Government is now backpedalling on the promise faster than a circus clown on a unicycle.
“In Parliament, Ms Broad and I called on Mr Ryan as the Minister responsible for the ‘Energy for the Regions’ Program to make good on his Government’s election promise to the people of Wandong and Heathcote Junction. Disappointingly, we are still waiting on Mr Ryan’s response.
“Understandably the local community is furious with the Baillieu Liberal Government and Ms McLeish who made a clear promise to the community that gas would be delivered under a Baillieu Government.
“Why was the community told they were part of a program when clearly they were not?”
Ms Broad said there was no funding in the State Budget for the project and Mr Ryan’s list of towns to be connected did not include Wandong or Heathcote Junction.
“Residents who have been chopping wood for decades, who are not getting any younger, who cannot afford $150 a week for bottled gas and who are worried about exploding gas bottles in bushfires are not taking this lying down,” Ms Broad said.
“Residents deserve an answer from Mr Baillieu on when he expects to deliver on his promise to provide natural gas to the people of Wandong and Heathcote Junction.”
* Hansard attached
8 November 2011 ASSEMBLY
Gas: Wandong-Heathcote Junction supply
Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East) -- The matter I raise this evening on the adjournment is for the Minister for Regional and Rural Development, and it refers to the Liberal government's commitment to connect the Wandong-Heathcote Junction communities to natural gas. The action I am seeking from the minister is that he deliver in full on this commitment to those communities. There is a great concern in those local communities that this pre-election promise will not be delivered on. I would like to make it clear to the house at this juncture -- as I anticipate the minister in his response may try to play tricks with the position of the previous government -- that it was Labor that started the extension of the natural gas system after it was privatised by the previous Liberal-Nationals government.
Under our program, through which 34 towns were connected, we invited local councils to submit proposals for towns in their areas that they would like to see connected to natural gas. This process was acknowledged in a letter from the Wandong-Heathcote Junction Community Group to the member forSeymour, in which the group said:
The Labor Party had at least told us it would go to a tender process.
Wandong was one town that under this process wanted to be connected to natural gas. Unfortunately no private provider was able to commit to the connection of natural gas under this program. Yet in an attempt to win votes the Liberal member forSeymourand the then Liberal leader, now the Premier, made a clear promise to the community. There was a flyer distributed far and wide in the community just days before last November's election. It was a flyer from the then leader of the Liberal-Nationals coalition and the then Liberal candidate for theSeymourelectorate, now the member forSeymour.
It stated that a Baillieu government would:
... ensure delivery of natural gas to Wandong-Heathcote Junction through the coalition's announced Energy for the Regions program if elected ...
The problem for Wandong -- and this demonstrates the deceit of the local community by the member for Seymour -- was that it had not been included in the list of 12 towns to be connected under this Energy for the Regions program that had already been released by the Liberal-Nationals coalition on 12 November 2010, a couple of weeks prior to this flyer's distribution in the Wandong-Heathcote Junction community. Understandably the local community is furious. It is furious with the government and with its local member.
There has already been a petition containing over 600 signatures, and last Wednesday a member for Northern Victoria Region in the other place, Candy Broad, and I met with number of irate local residents who were upset that they had been led astray. Many were worried about their ability to continue to live in the area due to the cost of using bottled gas. It is understandable that the members of this community are upset. Why were they put on a list when the government knew it could not deliver on its promise to this community?
10 November 2011 COUNCIL
Gas: Wandong-Heathcote Junction supply
Ms BROAD (Northern Victoria) -- I refer Mr Baillieu, the Premier, to his own words that were used prior to the last state election during a visit to Wandong. They were words that he circulated on a handbill in the communities of Wandong and Heathcote Junction which stated that a Baillieu government would:
... ensure delivery of natural gas to Wandong-Heathcote Junction through the coalition's announced Energy for the Regions program if elected ...
The action I seek from the Premier is that he live up to his own words and deliver natural gas to the people of Wandong-Heathcote Junction, because a promise is a promise.
Since the state election, residents of Wandong-Heathcote Junction have been left in the cold and in the dark in relation to the delivery of Mr Baillieu's promise. As matters stand, there are no funds in the state budget for the project. The Deputy Premier, Mr Ryan, has released a list of towns to be connected to natural gas, and Wandong-Heathcote Junction is nowhere on that list.
The local Liberal MP, Ms McLeish, the member forSeymourin the Assembly, has told the North Central Review that she is not able to provide a time line because one does not exist. Residents of Wandong-Heathcote Junction are most insulted by Ms McLeish's statements in the North Central Review about a tender process involving private gas companies. Residents know all about private tender processes because the Liberal Party criticised the former Labor government's tender processes for natural gas up hill and down dale prior to the last election.
Yet now the Liberal Party is telling residents that a connection to natural gas depends on a tender process. Last week Jacinta Allan, the member forBendigoEast in the Assembly, and I met with local residents in Wandong, and they were understandably upset that the Premier is not delivering on his promise.
Residents who have been chopping wood for decades, who are not getting any younger, who cannot afford $150 a week for bottled gas and who are worried about exploding gas bottles in bushfires are not taking this lying down. They deserve an answer from Mr Baillieu on when he expects to deliver on his promise of providing natural gas to the people of Wandong-Heathcote Junction.