Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (17:18): (5855) I raise a matter for the Minister for Housing, and it relates to the public housing property at 335 Main Street, Mornington.
The action I am seeking from the minister is that he takes action to ensure that particularly the external area of the premises is cleaned up, that the necessary repairs to broken fences and so on are undertaken and that a plan is put in place to ensure that future regular maintenance occurs on this site.
This has been an ongoing problem for this site for a very, very long time.
I am not reflecting in any way on the residents of the property. It is an unusual property, and it has a significant area of grass and open space. It also has high pedestrian traffic, so it has been a bit of a magnet for rubbish and so on, and that has had an impact on the way the grounds are maintained.
But nevertheless it is an eyesore, and it has been an eyesore for quite some time.
I have had frequent contact from constituents on the issue. I met with the local council at a regular meeting a few weeks back, and they made the point to me that the premises were looking less than optimal and that the issue was certainly on their radar. As an example of some of the correspondence that I do receive on this subject, a constituent wrote,
Over many years we have watched this Ministry site on the corner of Main Street and Surrey Road deteriorate. We believe the deterioration, rubbish, trash, broken fences are an inditment on the Labor government … and an insult to the community.
They go on to make the point that the site is on Main Street, Mornington, which is the gateway to the town. It is a very visible site, and it is unsightly to say the least.
So I am very keen for the minister to take the necessary action to have these premises cleaned up—I am sure they could do with some work inside, but at this stage I am mainly concerned about the outside; I have had no representations on the interior—to make sure that the necessary repairs are done, that fences and so on are fixed up and that a proper maintenance plan is put in place to prevent the ongoing recurrence of this long-running problem.