A member of the state opposition got a first-hand experience of Wyndham’s growth and infrastructure challenges last week.
Tim Smith, the parliamentary secretary to Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, was shown Wyndham’s new and emerging estates, the Point Cook Community Centre and the Julia Gillard Library Tarneit on Wednesday afternoon.
His guides were Wyndham mayor Adele Hegedich, Cr Glenn Goodfellow and council advocacy director Bill Forrest.
Mr Smith, who is responsible for developing a population policy for the opposition, said he was invited to see Wyndham after meeting Cr Hegedich at a recent dinner.
He said the population policy would map out a plan to handle Melbourne’s growth.
Mr Smith said that as it was the fastest- growing municipality outside the City of Melbourne, it was great to see how Wyndham was dealing with a burgeoning population.
“All major state issues come from the fact that Melbourne is the fastest-growing city in the country with 100,000 people moving here every year,” he said.
“We all know that congestion pressure, particularly in Melbourne, is at the front of people’s minds and that’s directly correlated to population growth.
“That has a flow-on effect to everything – housing supply and affordability, car congestion, public transport congestion – and how we plan for this.
“Population growth is not bad, but unplanned growth is bad. So we’re doing the hard work now in opposition.”
Wyndham councillor Glenn Goodfellow said the bus tour was intended to show Mr Smith the need for infrastructure and other amenities in Wyndham.
