Cranbourne Racecourse: lighting
06-May-2011
Mr BURGESS (Hastings) -- I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Racing. The action I seek is for the minister to step in and salvage a very worthwhile project from another disgraceful example of a politically motivated, dishonest and inadequately funded announcement by the previous Labor government. The meritorious project I refer to is the provision and installation of appropriate lighting to enable night racing at the Cranbourne Racecourse. While it is not in my electorate, many of my constituents are trainers, jockeys, stablehands, owners and other participants in the racing industry and are frequent users of the racing facilities at Cranbourne. A great number of my constituents enjoy the entertainment provided by this excellent facility.
Many dedicated people from Victoria's racing industry worked long and hard over a very extensive period to make the Cranbourne Racecourse one of Victoria's premier training and racing facilities for all three codes. Cr Geoff Ablett of the City of Casey played an important role in bringing this result about. These same people have given their all to secure appropriate lighting for this racecourse -- lighting that will allow this important piece of infrastructure to be used more frequently, effectively and efficiently. Appropriate lighting would allow the Cranbourne Racecourse to host at least 15 night race meetings, and this would be a very desirable outcome from the perspective of all users of the facility, the industry and Victorians in general. Such a situation would also complement the arrangements of the Moonee Valley Racecourse and assist in boosting the strength of Victoria's racing industry.
In October last year many people in the racing industry expressed deep concern about what they considered to be a very rushed and offhand announcement by the former Brumby government Minister for Racing, the member for Niddrie, to belatedly fund the lighting.
This announcement was made just weeks before the state election, and it has since become apparent that it was an announcement made with insufficient thought, insufficient consultation and insufficient funding. The former government's rushed and half-baked announcement was motivated by political gain instead of the good of Victoria, and it has left the Cranbourne Racecourse and the racing community in the dark.
Since coming to government the coalition has discovered numerous examples of Brumby government smoke-and-mirrors projects -- projects that were inadequately funded or not funded at all. This type of deception was cruel and treated members of our community like pawns in Labor's power-hungry political games. Last November Victorians punished Labor for breaching their trust. The action I seek is for the Minister for Racing to step in and save this very worthy but inadequately funded project.