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Sent: Tuesday, 17 May 2022, 12:11:42 pm AEST
Subject: Wed.22.12.21 daily digest, part 2

Roderick

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Wed.22.12.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Letters:
* No real consultation. LOCAL communities appealing to the Ombudsman to intervene in level crossing removals (“Locals angry at rail project”, HS, 21/ 12), is the latest desperate attempt to claw back some small level of local democracy in the planning and infrastructure area.
With the Andrews government using a big baseball bat for its big build, local communities are having design and construction outcomes imposed on their neighbourhoods without any real say.
So-called “consultation” involves questionnaires and multiple choice options that carefully steer responses towards the government’s designs.
With detailed engineering designs often finalised before being tabled to the public, the consultation effectively only involves what type of saplings will be planted, and what colour the door handles might be.

Wed.22.12.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Cancelled carpark on track again. TOM MINEAR
A COMMUTER carpark project the federal government abandoned earlier this year is now back in the works in an $l8m deal with Frankston City Council.
The government scrapped its 2019 election promise to upgrade Kananook station in the
May federal budget as Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher tried to resolve problems with the controversial parking fund before the release of a damning Auditor—General’s report.
But Mr Fletcher has now committed $l8m to a new 312-space carpark to be built on land the council has purchased opposite the station.
“Today’s announcement delivers on a commitment we made to the people of south-eastern Melbourne to deliver more commuter carparking at Kananook station to encourage more commuters onto trains, which in turn will mean less pressure on local roads,” Mr Fletcher said.
Frankston Mayor Nathan Conroy thanked the federal government for the “vital funding”, saying he was confident it would “meet the needs of current and future carparking demands” in the area once the project was finished by the end of 2023.
But opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Catherine King said: “The gall of this an nouncement is simply astonishing.
“Local commuters have not forgotten that the Liberals made this exact same promise last election, only to cancel the project earlier this year,” Ms King said.