Tara Murray
The Sunshine Superhub, the Melbourne Airport Rail Link and a redeveloped Albion station are key components to Brimbank council’s ’landmark’ plan for the future.
At a special council meeting last week to launch the document – Sunshine Priority Precinct Vision 2050 – Leading with Vision: A City Ready to Shine – mayor Ranka Rasic said it a plan to be proud of.
“It’s a vision about jobs, skills, innovation, learning, accessibility, improved health, social and economic outcomes for our community and broader region,” she said.
“We are proud to have delivered such an ambitious vision for Brimbank, our residents deserve and expect.”
The plan is the result of two years of work and community consultation including more than 2100 items of community engagement.
Councillor Virgina Tachos said that the Sunshine Vision is now more important than ever.
“Brimbank has sadly been at the epicentre of Australia’s COVID-19 crisis, in terms of not only the health and wellbeing impacts, but also in terms of the devastating economic impacts.
“As a community which has already experienced significant socio economic challenges before the pandemic, iincluding high unemployment, and lower than average education and learning outcomes, our community will now need more help than ever to get back on our feet.”
As reported by Star Weekly last week, the council is concerned by the lack of detail the state and federal governments are releasing in relation to the Sunshine Superhub.
That view was reflected by many councillors at last week’s meeting.
Cr Rasic said many of the projects in the vision had been promised to the local community and she wants those commitments honoured.
“Declaring the Sunshine and Albion corridor as one of the newest priority precincts in 2019, the state government recognised Sunshine’s potential,” she said.
“There is significant concern in our community that the joint state and federal government announcement… was not what we were promised and not enough to drive the very best outcome for our local communities in the west.
“The west can’t be ignored.”
Councillor Victoria Borg said the Sunshine Superhub was a once in a generation project for the area.
“It’s a game changer for Brimbank and the western suburbs and beyond,” she said.
“It was quite disappointing to see the recent media release. The Sunshine Superhub was overall looked and just referred to as a key station.
“It’s not clear of the government’s intention on a number of things.”
Cr Tachos highlighted previous mentions of the Superhub in federal Parliament that the rail link was not just about transport, but a key connection point between the city and regional centres.
“Both state and federal governments made a commitment to a project that deals with an unprecedented opportunity to make a lasting and positive change which is overdue for our city
“On the back of this, and the commitment, our council embarked on a bold plan, unlocking the long-lasting benefits to our community, a community that deserves nothing less.”
A state government spokesperson said it was making unprecedented investments in Sunshine.
“We’re delivering more than $20 billion in transport infrastructure projects that benefit Sunshine, making it one of the most important transport interchanges in Victoria – so we’re continuing to look at the wider transport precinct at Sunshine, and we’ll have more to say soon about this thriving centre in Melbourne’s growing west, and how the community can have their say on the project as it progresses.”
