By Christine de Kock
DISSATISFIED action groups representing concerns from across the West formed a coalition last Sunday with the aim of lobbying government as a unified force.
The coalition was made up of about eight groups that spoke at the Stop the Neglect of the West Rally, held under the E.J. Whitten statue at Whitten Oval in Footscray on Sunday.
Each group promoted the same idea – make the West marginal.
The groups believe that compared to the east of Melbourne, the West had poorer services, and marginal seats received more attention and money when it came to election time.
About 60 people attended the protest, organised within a week by the Sunshine Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association (SunRRA).
Representatives from Maribyrnong Truck Action Group (MTAG), Wyndham Action Planners, Western Region Disability Network, Sunshine Women’s Association, Ardeeer Community Play Ground, Planning Backlash, Brimbank Public Land Action Group and SunRRA spoke at the rally.
MTAG president Peter Knight said the Government ignored the community’s call for the removal of truck through traffic on residential streets in the seats of Footscray and Williamstown.
Residents believe their children’s health is at risk from diesel pollution among other concerns as a result of the through traffic.
Mr Knight says in his election material that MTAG is politically neutral, but wants to make votes in a safe Labor seat count by making the seat marginal.
SunRRA vice-president Sean Spencer said living in the West was his choice, “being treated like a second-class citizen is not”.
“The lives of people in the West are deemed less important by the Government than those in the east,” he said.
“After years of complaints and near-misses outside the Sunshine Hospital, it takes the death of a mother and serious injury of her daughter to get a pedestrian crossing with lights – that’s still not completed,” he said.
Mr Spencer said the government igrnored the West when compared to the east in the areas of health, education and infrastructure.
Lori McLean of Wyndham Action Planners echoed Mr Spencer, saying the group had campaigned for two years, gathering about 10,000 signatures to protest the lack of police in the City of Wyndham.
She said the signatures were tabled in Parliament, but the group did not have a response from the Government.
“Two years ago we were promised a second police station for Werribee as the growth rate is the second-largest in Australia … this has never eventuated,” Ms McLean said.
The Bracks Government released its Growing the Western Suburbs: Developing Liveable Communities policy for the Victorian election last week.
Mr Bracks said since 1999 “the Government has been investing in new infrastructure projects that balance economic, social and environmental goals”.
“This election presents a stark choice: whether the western suburbs will risk it all with the Liberals and go back to a past of neglect and decline or build on the achievements of the last seven years and move forward with confidence and strength,” he said.
The policy states the Government would “complete the new North Wyndham Police Station at a cost of $6.5 million,” although the project, still in the planning phase, is expected to be finished in 2008.
The 16-page document lists several benefits for the West if the Government is re-elected, such as building five new schools in the West, and the development of new day treatment centres at Western Hospital and Sunshine Hospital as part of a $7 million statewide plan to improve access to emergency departments.
Sunshine Hospital would also see a $184 million expansion, while the West Gate and Monash freeways would undergo a $1.1 billion upgrade.
The Government also plans to provide funding or undertake developments to assist sporting and recreational facilities throughout the West.
The Government, in an announcement separate to the policy, said if re-elected it would provide $500,000 to the Western Bulldogs Football Club for the development of a children’s centre.
The centre is expected to deliver an extra 105 childcare places.
Representatives from political groups such as the Liberals, Greens and Footscray’s Independent candidate Catherine Cumming also attended the rally on Sunday but did not speak.
