By Kyra Gillespie
Daniel Andrews’ skyrail election pledge for Pakenham has been lambasted by local Liberal MPs, who have labelled the eleventh-hour promise as nothing more than a “last-minute” bid for votes.
“This is a dirty, nasty option to be thrown at Pakenham. The Premier is making decisions on the run and the community will suffer as a result,” Liberal Bass MP Brian Paynter said.
“Daniel Andrews is obsessed with skyrail – I’ve been to communities where skyrail has been lumped on them and they are very unhappy; they have divided their town, created noise, are a huge eyesore and have devalued properties. And now he wants to put a concrete monument into the sky in Pakenham.
“This will be a bad legacy for the town to be left with. Clearly the Premier is more interested in making last-minute announcements to win votes than he is in actually investing in proper planning.”
While he was not able to reveal a solution on the record, Mr Paynter said a Liberal alternative to skyrail will be announced tomorrow.
“We’ll be coming out with some news of our own; we are going to address the problem properly, the way the community deserves,” Mr Paynter said.
The Liberal MP claimed that the “superstation” was part of Labor’s long-term plan to scrap V/Line past Pakenham.
“Their long-term plan is to terminate V/Line train services at Pakenham, that’s why there are building this so-called ‘superstation’ and the V/Line platform.
“They didn’t build skyrail to accommodate the V/Line; they’ve only built two lines, they haven’t got the capacity for them.”
Liberal Gembrook MP Brad Battin has also criticised the election promise.
“Our population is out of control under Daniel Andrews. 15 out of 19 years Labor have been in government and in that time they have failed to recognise that Pakenham is on the map,” Gembrook MP Brad Battin said.
“Five minutes before an election, after 15 of 19 years in government Labor have decided to announce a project, that they will only deliver if they are elected another two more times.
“Only a Guy Liberal Government has a true plan to back get in control of population growth to get Victoria on the move and protect your quality of life.”
