A REDEVELOPED dental clinic for Footscray and a four-bed psychiatric assessment unit at Western Hospital have emerged as the only significant investments for Maribyrnong in this year’s state government budget.
Hobsons Bay’s sole highlight is $8 million towards a P-12 autism school in Laverton.
Premier Denis Napthine said the budget delivered for communities across the state, but community groups and politicians say the $6.1 billion spent on major projects largely overlooked the inner-west.
Mr Napthine said the allocation of $9.7 million to rebuild the Western Region Health Centre’s public dental clinic followed 11 years of Labor neglect. “Labor’s heartland in Footscray was ignored by the Labor Party. It has taken a Liberal-Nationals government to come in and deliver for all Victorians, particularly those in Melbourne’s west.”
WRHC hopes to begin building the new 12-chair dental clinic early next year and finish within two years.
But Footscray MP Marsh Thomson said the state budget had cut health spending and done nothing to deliver-on road and rail infrastructure in the west. “It’s a disgrace that the work done on the truck action plan to get it shovel-ready has been totally shelved and all money allocated for it has been wiped from the budget and has gone to other projects,” she said.
“This is a disgrace for an area for which only increased truck traffic is projected, where people are unable to sleep at night, where young families are disturbed by the trucks and where safety is being put at risk.”
Greens MP Colleen Hartland said the budget was mostly bad news for the western suburbs. “The biggest disappointment is the government’s complete neglect of addressing our transport problems,” she said.
“We are home to the most dissatisfied commuters, those on the Altona Loop, and the most overcrowded train line — the Werribee line.”
SKYHigh spokeswoman Janine Lloyd said children in the growing suburbs of Seddon, Kingsville and Yarraville again missed out on funding for a local high school. “Despite writing to Mr Napthine last month,” she said, “the state budget indicates the government’s response is that the 1400 SKYHigh families, local kids and parents don’t deserve a high school this year.” —Benjamin Millar
