Bass Coast Post
  • Home
    • Recent articles
  • News
    • Point of view
    • View from the chamber
  • Writers
    • Anne Davie
    • Anne Heath Mennell
    • Bob Middleton
    • Carolyn Landon
    • Catherine Watson
    • Christine Grayden
    • Dick Wettenhall
    • Ed Thexton
    • Etsuko Yasunaga
    • Frank Coldebella
    • Gayle Marien
    • Geoff Ellis
    • Gill Heal
    • Harry Freeman
    • Ian Burns
    • Joan Woods
    • John Coldebella
    • Jordan Crugnale
    • Julie Statkus
    • Kit Sleeman
    • Laura Brearley >
      • Coastal Connections
    • Lauren Burns
    • Liane Arno
    • Linda Cuttriss
    • Linda Gordon
    • Lisa Schonberg
    • Liz Low
    • Marian Quigley
    • Mark Robertson
    • Mary Whelan
    • Meryl Brown Tobin
    • Michael Whelan
    • Mikhaela Barlow
    • Miriam Strickland
    • Natasha Williams-Novak
    • Neil Daly
    • Patsy Hunt
    • Pauline Wilkinson
    • Phil Wright
    • Sally McNiece
    • Terri Allen
    • Tim Shannon
    • Zoe Geyer
  • Features
    • Features 2022
  • Arts
  • Local history
  • Environment
  • Bass Coast Prize
  • Community
    • Diary
    • Courses
    • Groups
  • Contact us

Libs splash $42m on island pool

20/7/2022

4 Comments

 
Picture
By Catherine Watson

The Liberal Party has taken a punt with today’s announcement of $42 million for an aquatic centre on Phillip Island if the Coalition wins government at the November state election.

The Bass Coast Shire Council advocacy list has a Phillip Island aquatic centre at the top – but in concert with a new Bass Coast aquatic centre in Wonthaggi. The council is seeking $79.3 million in state and federal funding to deliver both.

Instead the Liberal Party has announced more than half that amount for one pool and zero for the other.

They will soon find out whether they have annoyed more people than they have pleased. While there will be plenty of cheers from the island, Liberal candidate Aaron Brown might have a bit of explaining to do in Wonthaggi and Inverloch.

Phillip Islanders have been campaigning for almost 30 years to get their own pool.

Current plans for the aquatic centre in Cowes include an eight-lane 25m swimming pool, a warm water leisure and swimming lesson pool, a toddlers play pool, waterslides, a gymnasium with group fitness spaces and spa and sauna facilities.

The proposed Wonthaggi aquatic centre is similar but so far has no funding allocated.

The announcement by Liberal shadow ministers David Southwick and Cindy McLeish shows the Coalition is willing to promise plenty in the marginal Bass electorate in hopes of snatching it back from Labor.

Victoria’s Liberal Party Leader Matthew Guy was in the shire earlier this month to announce a $6 million commitment to tackling Inverloch’s coastal erosion if the Coalition wins government in November.

The Liberal Party’s spending commitments this time round are in stark contrast to the 2018 state election when they gave Bass Liberal MP Brian Paynter almost nothing to entice voters.

The seat is currently held by Labor MP Jordan Crugnale who secured a 7 per swing against Mr Paynter in 2018 to win the seat for the ALP for the first time since it was created in 2002.

The margin was 2.39 per cent, and it is now considered to be even closer following a redistribution, which removes the urban (strongly Labor-voting) area of Pakenham from the electorate.

Ms Crugnale faces a double Coalition challenge with the National Party scoring a coup by naming popular former Bass Coast mayor Brett Tessari as their candidate. Mr Tessari received almost half the total votes in his ward at the 2020 Bass Coast Council election.

Two visits to Bass Coast by National Party leader Peter Walsh in the past month show the National Party is serious about winning the seat in their own right.

Mr Walsh has promised that if elected the Coalition would guarantee that 25 per cent of all new State Government infrastructure spending would go to the regions, in line with the population. 
4 Comments
Linda Marston
23/7/2022 10:12:27 am

To put this into context -Wonthaggi does have a pool, which engineers report is structurally sound. Yes, it may be old and need updating but... there is a pool there. Phillip Island does not have a pool and the community has been advocating for nearly 30 years for one.

Reply
Julie Thomas
23/7/2022 02:00:22 pm

If - IF - it comes to fruition, I for one won’t be annoyed. I think thirty years is long enough to expect islanders to drive a total of 80 km for a swim in a pool. I reckon it’s their turn.

Reply
Lou Pecora
23/7/2022 05:42:45 pm

I agree with both Julie Thomas and Linda Marston that Phillip Island has waited long enough for a pool whilst Wonthaggi has had the pleasure of one for the past 40 years. It would be absolutely pathetic for mainlanders to bemoan the islanders, if successful, of a new pool when their pool is still structually sound for another 10 years.

Reply
Kay
24/7/2022 02:45:09 pm

Phillip Island has water all around, what's wrong with swimming in natural sea water rather than chlorinated piddle pool?

I would be more interested in money going to low income housing.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.