In announcing the projected construction of an interchange at Sneydes Road,
Planning Minister Matthew Guy recently asserted that:

“Labor had eleven years to build this project, the local member was the Roads Minister, the federal member is the Prime Minister and yet not one cent of funding has been spent by Labor.”

What Minister Guy failed to mention was that the reason this project has recently become a priority is the influx of traffic which will arise from the development of further residential housing as well as businesses in the Werribee Employment Precinct.

This announcement in effect means that Wyndham’s WEP will be the fifth largest population centre in Victoria. The WEP and the new residential precinct will be built on land asset sales worth over $100 million dollars, which will be sold to developers with only a firm commitment to fund half an arterial interchange. Such a course of action short changes this community and will condemn it to worsening congestion.

The Minister estimates that 70,000 people will work and live in this area. With a
population of 70,000 people to service the WEP would sit as the fifth largest
population centre in Victoria behind Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.

All Minister Guy has committed for Sneydes Road is $500,000 to planning and scoping for what will be only a half-diamond intersection, with exits facing the city, not the west. He has provided no information on when the community can expect this interchange to actually become a full diamond interchange. This simply duplications the problem at Duncans Road where access to and from the Geelong and the west is further impeded.

Over the term of the previous State Labor Government, $189.3 million was spent on
Wyndham’s roads. This was $25 million per year for the final four years while
Tarneit MP Tim Pallas was the Minster for Roads. If you include the nearby road
treatments such as the Kororoit Creek Road duplication and grade separation,
that figure increases to approximately $215 million.

By comparison, the Baillieu Government are yet to commit one new dollar of budgetary allocations to Wyndham’s roads after two years in office. The only attention Wyndham’s roads have received has been standard TAC-funded safety upgrades. The Baillieu Government’s refusal to match Labor’s commitment to complete the diamond interchange at Duncans Road despite community pressure is a continuing demonstration of the contempt with which they regard the people of the western suburbs.

Labor’s achievements for local transport improvement in Wyndham include: 

• $14.7 million Derrimut Road
       duplication from Hogans Road to Sayers Road.
• Completed $3 million Werribee
       Cottrell Street works reducing congestion during peak periods.
• $5 million Duncans Road safety
       upgrade.
• $9.2 million for Federation Trail
       extension from Millers Road, Altona to Williamstown Road, Yarraville.
• $2.1 million for planning study
       of Armstrong Road.
• Wyndham and Hobsons Bay Bus
       Review a $4.6 million investment adding new services and extending hours
       of operation to serve Wyndham’s growing population.
• Increased Nightrider bus
       services.
• More Werribee Line peak and non
       peak services.
• Hoppers Crossing and Laverton Station
       carpark upgrade providing 700 car spaces on the Werribee line.
• $92.6 million for the Laverton
       Rail upgrade.
• $28.6 Palmers Road extension and
       $24m for the new overpass.
• $10 million planning and
       consultation study for WestLink, a second river crossing of the
       Maribyrnong River.
• $48.5 million duplication and
       grade separation at Kororoit Creek Road in Hobsons Bay