By Kerri-Anne Mesner
THELiberal candidate for the federal seat of Maribyrnong, Ian Soylemez, has launched a three-point plan to focus on cleaning up the Maribyrnong River, cleaning up local crime and cleaning up railway crossings in St Albans.
Mr Soylemez said it was frustrating that the St Albans railway crossings had been neglected for many years, particularly as there had been deaths at some crossings.
The Liberal candidate would not say what his preferred solution was for the notorious Main Road level crossing.
But he did say he believed that for every problem there was a solution and with the Main Road level crossing it would be ideal if the road went under or over the railway line.
Mr Soylemez said he thought cameras were needed at the bus stop across from the Sunshine station to deter criminal activity in the area, which was becoming a problem.
Mr Soylemez’s three-point plan did not contain any funding commitments and Labor candidate Bill Shorten was quick to criticise it.
“Labor has specifically committed funding for the Maribyrnong electorate,” Mr Shorten said.
Funds had been committed for the widening of the Western Ring Rd and for a training facility at Sunshine Hospital, he said.
Mr Shorten said everyone agreed something needed to be done about the issues Mr Soylemez has raised, but people wanted to see solutions and funding commitments for those solutions, not just the issues being raised continuously.
While there have been no direct funding commitments from Mr Soylemez’s campaign, Prime Minister John Howard last week announced the Coalition would release 127 hectares of a defence site in Maribyrnong as part of a 961-hectare land release package to tackle the housing affordability issues.
The site is heavily contaminated and is expected to cost up to $75 million to clean up.
Mr Shorten said negotiations between the State Government and the Federal Government had been going on for years and it would be many more years once the clean-up project began before the land would be ready to be released.
