Media Releases

Northern Victoria Region MP Damian Drum today announced that $230,000 of road rehabilitation works had started on a weather-affected section of the Wimmera Highway.

 

“These works involve repairing storm damaged sections on a stretch of the Wimmera Highway, approximately 10km east of Newbridge near Woodstock on Loddon,” Mr Drum said.

 

“The Wimmera Highway was one of many arterial roads affected by storm and flood events in 2011.

 

“The rehabilitation works will involve strengthening and stabilising the road pavement and applying new line-marking.

 

“The works are being undertaken as part of a package of road upgrades to flood impacted roads within the Loddon Shire, which also includes the Loddon Valley Highway and sections of the Boort-Pyramid Road,” he said.

 

The works are expected to take about two weeks to complete.

 

Motorists are asked to observe changed traffic conditions as the highway will be under speed restrictions.

 

Mr Drum thanked the community for their patience while the works are carried out.

A State Government plan to restore public confidence in road safety cameras has passed through State Parliament this week.
Nationals MP for Northern Victoria, Damian Drum, said the legislation appointing Australia’s first independent Road Safety Camera Commissioner was designed to increase transparency around the issues of red light and speed cameras.
Speaking on the Bill in Parliament, Mr Drum said there had been evidence of a lack of public confidence about the cameras with common complaints that they were inaccurate, poorly sited or simply “revenue raisers”.
“We know very well that road safety cameras save lives,” Mr Drum said.
“Putting more independence around the control and monitoring of the road safety camera system will give the public more confidence and create more integrity around the system.
“It has been proven that if people truly believe that a system is working for their benefit, then they will change their driving behaviour.”
The Road Safety Camera Commissioner will:
• Oversee the accuracy and fairness of the camera system, including regularly reviewing it and reporting to Parliament every year.
• Investigate matters related to the integrity, accuracy and efficiency of the system.
• Handle complaints from the public which pointed to any potential system problems.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Peter Ryan, said the appointment of the Road Safety Camera Commissioner was part of a range of Coalition State Government initiatives to change the culture of speeding in Victoria.
“An investigation by Victoria’s Auditor General last month found speed and red-light cameras are focussed on road safety, not raising revenue. It also found cameras had led to reduced speeding, fewer crashes and less road trauma,” Mr Ryan said.
Mr Drum said he believed the new commissioner would give Victorian drivers new faith in the system and lead to a lowering of the road toll.

August 19, 2011


Nationals MP for Northern Victoria Region, Damian Drum, has praised the City of Greater Bendigo and VicRoads for listening to people’s concerns over the proposed Bendigo transport strategy and acting on their concerns.
He told State Parliament this week that the council and VicRoads had put a process in place which allowed people to have a clear say on the strategy – particularly on a proposed bypass which would have impacted heritage areas.
He said he had had meetings with many concerned residents.
“There was one meeting at the city library, where all the representatives were present, that enabled everybody for the affected areas to step up to the microphone and have their say. It was an interesting meeting which went on for four hours and many did get up and have their say.
“To their credit, those representatives listened to the concerns and recommendations have now been put in place to scrap the transport corridor which would have gone through Quarry Hill.”
Mr Drum said other parts of the city’s transport strategy would probably be implemented.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank the City of Greater Bendigo and VicRoads for listening and arriving at a compromise.”

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/media-centre/victorian-government-reforms.html

A Coalition State Government contribution of $5 million was a major step towards getting Bendigo’s long-awaited airport upgrade up and running, State Parliament was told this week.
Answering a question from Nationals MP for Northern Victoria Region, Damian Drum, the Minister responsible for the Aviation Industry, Gordon Rich-Phillips, said he had had detailed discussions with the City of Great Bendigo recently.
He said the message the council had given him was that the $5 million in the Coalition Government’s first State Budget had been the “impetus for ensuring that it goes ahead.”
He told Mr Drum that the project would cost a total of $15 million and he hoped the Federal Government would make a similar contribution.
“The project will require a three-way funding split between the Commonwealth, the State and local government.”
Mr Rich-Phillips said that the project would see the development of a new north-south runway, new taxiways and a new apron area.
“During my meetings with the council, I had an opportunity to discuss the proposed scope of the project, and I look forward to receiving a formal proposal from the City of Greater Bendigo as to the early works that can be undertaken.”
The early works were likely to include the taxiway and apron upgrades.
Mr Drum said the Coalition State Government had established a $20 million regional aviation fund to support airport infrastructure across the state.
He said the $5 million for Bendigo delivered in full on a pre-election commitment by the Liberal/National Coalition

An $8 million project to restore some of Melbourne’s famous old W-Class trams could be an enormous boost for the Bendigo Trust, Nationals MP for Northern Victoria Region, Damian Drum, said today.
He said he would fight to see that Bendigo Trust’s’ workshop won most of the work.
In this week’s Budget, the State Government outlined an $8 million scheme to refurbish dozens of the old W-Class trams now on the Melbourne City Circle line as well as putting more W-Class trams on tourist-oriented inner city lines.
Mr Drum has had further discussions with Transport Minister Terry Mulder and addressed a question to Mr Mulder in State Parliament later in the week.
In his address to Parliament, Mr Drum said: “I was hoping that some- if not all – of this restoration work could, in fact, be done in Bendigo.
“The Bendigo Tramways workshop has the capacity to do this work. It has the specific capacity to restore these W-Class trams.”
He said it would be a significant project for Bendigo.
“My understanding is that the Bendigo Tramways is well positioned in this area. I think it has often been referred to as the only specialist tramways workshop in Australia that has the ability to do this work.”
Mr Drum has asked Mr Mulder for more detail on the placing of the work.
“This would be a real shot in the arm for the Bendigo Tramways workshop,” he said.
W-Class trams were built in Melbourne, at the old Preston Workshops, from the 1920s to the 1950s. Yarra Trams still operate 38 W-Class trams on the hugely popular City Circle free service and is required by State law to maintain them.
More than three million people a year still use the W-Class trams in Melbourne.

Labor was warned of “black holes” in V/Line timetable
Nationals MP Damian Drum today accused Labor Bendigo East MP Jacinta Allan of outrageous hypocrisy over her comments on V/Line passenger rail timetable changes.
Mr Drum said Ms Allan had been strident in the media over a change to the 6.02 am express train to Melbourne. But evidence now showed she not only knew about the looming problem for years, but repeatedly refused to do anything about it.
Mr Drum met V/Line senior executives again this week to discuss the main change on the Bendigo-Melbourne line which will see the existing 6.02 am express to Melbourne include an extra stop at Gisborne.
“Labor’s Bendigo East MP Jacinta Allan is doing all in her power to stir up resentment about the extra stop, but I suspect now the truth is she is just trying to disguise her own role in this,” Mr Drum said.
“I now know that she had had what was termed ‘consistent advice’ from V/Line that the previous Government’s actions had led to gaping black holes in the timetable.
“By ripping up the extra passing tracks which had existed on the Bendigo line and by failing to make the new trains significantly faster than the old ones, fast-growing communities along the line were being left out.
“At Gisborne, one of the fastest growing areas of commuter demand, there is a huge gap in the morning service which left a lot of people without timely trains to Melbourne.”
Mr Drum said Jacinta Allan had known “for years’ about the problem, but failed to do anything.
He told State Parliament that Bendigo line commuters were about to get even slower trains thanks to Labor’s decision to electrify the line all the way to Sunbury. Trains on the electrified Melbourne system cannot travel faster than 120 kmh.
“So for about 30 kilometres, trains which can now travel at 160 will have to slow to 120. There were reports that a large percentage of Sunbury commuters did not want the metropolitan system extended, but preferred the existing trains.
“It created great division in the Sunbury community, but Labor pushed on with it, and now we all have to bear the consequences.”
Mr Drum said the slower service would kick in late this year.
He said he had asked V/Line to review all options to try to find a way to keep the Bendigo service as fast as possible.
“I’ve asked for extra options to try to get around these black holes. Our discussions are on-going,” he said.

Today’s historic Budget – the first for the Baillieu/Ryan Coalition – showed the Government was focussed on delivering its commitments to Bendigo.
Nationals MP for Northern Victoria, and Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development, Damian Drum, welcomed the first Wells Budget and said it marked the beginning of a new era for Bendigo and regional Victoria.
“This Budget is a boomer for Bendigo.
“It will silence those critics who, since last November’s election, have been trying to question the Coalition’s resolve to carry out its pre-election commitments,” he said.
The 2011 State Budget included:
• An extra $102 million for the Bendigo Hospital Project, taking the total to $630 million. This will deliver, as promised, 372 new acute inpatient beds, 10 new operating theatres, a new Integrated Regional Cancer Centre on the main campus, a mother and baby unit, a headspace facility, additional beds as well as research and education facilities
• $5 million for the Bendigo Airport upgrade.
• $100 million to begin rolling natural gas out to towns including Maldon, Huntly, Marong and Heathcote
• $2 million to start planning a Bendigo-Ballarat-Geelong rail link.
• Massive education investment such as $8 million for Bendigo Senior Secondary College, $13.5 million for Weeroona College and $2 million to help keep Eaglehawk Primary School open,
• $500,000 to begin work on a new Epsom railway station and improve rail services to Eaglehawk.
Mr Drum said a centrepiece of the Budget was the $1 billion Regional Growth Fund which would drive regional prosperity for years to come.
“This is the fund which will put regional communities in the driver’s seat. Forty per cent of that fund will be determined by each region’s own priorities.
“On top of that, the Budget benefits our region in so many ways, such as beginning to get more police and ambulance officers into our communities, the reduction in ambulance subscription fees, in stamp duty cuts for first home buyers, pensioners and farmers.”
Mr Drum said he was proud to be a member of the State Government which was so clearly focussed on regional Victoria.

Regional Rail Link to go ahead
The Coalition State Government decision to push ahead with the Regional Rail Link was great news for regional Victoria, Nationals MP for Northern Victoria, Damian Drum, said today.
The huge project had to be reviewed when independent analysis showed the previous Labor Government had under-estimated the project cost by between $700 million and $1.1 billion.
Mr Drum has been a committed campaigner for a new rail link giving regional passenger trains a smoother path through the metropolitan Melbourne rail system and had raised the issue repeatedly in State Parliament.
“I was devastated when Department of Finance analysis recently revealed how wrong Labor had got the figures.
“We were forced to review the scope and timing of the project, but we will now push on despite the challengers Labor has left us
“Bendigo Labor MP Jacinta Allan has been running a disgraceful scare campaign, claiming the National Party and the Liberal Party had scrapped the Regional Rail Link. She was trying to create a smokescreen to hide Labor’s appalling economic incompetence,” he said.
“Like Transport Minister Terry Mulder, I believe the Regional Rail Link is an important foundation for future growth in capacity and reliability of Victoria’s train network and for growth in the regions.
“I note Mr Mulder’s remarks that on top of the under-funding, Labor failed to fund $259 million for 34 new V/Locity trains and another $150 million for major work at two rail crossings.
“So, we are still left with a challenging project, but one which will proceed and I look forward to further announcements in the near future,” Mr Drum said.

Lazy Labor nicks another policy … or two..or 87
The Brumby Labor Government’s policy announcements in Bendigo this week would have sounded very familiar to people who had been listening to the Coalition for the past few years, Nationals MP for Northern Victoria Region, Damian Drum, said today.
“John Brumby came to Bendigo and made a lot of noise about returning some of the funding he had with-held from non-government schools for the past decade.
“I’ve been campaigning for a fair go for non-government schools for years and Labor tried to howl me down every time I raised it. I pointed out that parents of children at Catholic College Bendigo alone were short-changed $1.48 million a year compared to NSW schools. For primary and secondary families, the amount topped $3 million a year.
“Two years ago, I told Parliament: ‘Victoria has the lowest funded non-government education sector in the land.’
“Labor is waging an old-style class war against non-government schools. It thinks Catholic schools are all where wealthy parents send their kids. But they forget it includes places like St Peters at North Bendigo, or St Joseph’s College in Echuca
“Then Mr Brumby announced there would be extra policing at major railways stations at night, despite years of denying there was a security risk on many lines.
“Yet again, these are issues Labor argued black and blue for years were not issues. Suddenly, 17 days before the election, Mr Brumby has a change of heart.”
Mr Drum said the number of policies and significant announcements Labor had now stolen from the Coalition had reached 87.
“For the past two years, the Coalition has been leading the development of policy in this state. It usually goes like this: we announce a policy, Labor scoffs at it, then they poll it and find people like what we’re saying, so Labor adopts it.
“John Brumby spent years loudly denying anything was wrong: No, he said, there’s no shortage of police, nurses, teachers, hospitals, trains and so on.
“But for months now, he’s been back-pedalling, stealing the Coalition’s rigorous work in developing policies and trying to claim them as his own.
“Labor supporters must be privately embarrassed at what it reveals - that this is a tired government, which long ago ran out of ideas and is now surviving on spin and policy poaching,” Mr Drum said.