By Matthew Sims and Corey Everitt
The 2024-25 State Budget showed little new projects for the burgeoning Cardinia Shire as the State Government tightens their belt, but residents can be thankful that no cuts were made in the core services of education, health and transport.
The Pakenham Pumas Baseball Club has received an extra boost to its continued growth, in the form of a $100,000 investment in the budget.
As part of the official release of the budget documents on Tuesday 7 May, the investment was part of a $14.7 million investment towards delivering community sports infrastructure in the next financial year, followed by an estimated investment of $2.8 million over the next two financial years.
Club board member Gregg Clutterbuck said the club was keen to getting to work on deciding how to best utilise the funding.
“It’s very exciting,“ he said.
“It’s a welcome addition for us to continue to enhance the facilities we’ve got.
“This is going to be important.“
Mr Clutterbuck said the club had continued to grow since it was founded in 2000, with this year being the first year with six senior teams playing in the winter season.
“Our women’s program continues to grow,“ he said.
“For us, it’s fantastic to see continued growth in our sport in Pakenham.“
The outlook for the completion of the Pakenham Community Hospital project has ballooned out in terms of cost and its timeline.
Released on Tuesday 7 May, the budget documents confirmed the statewide community hospitals project would not be complete until April to June 2026, while the estimated investment in the group of community hospitals Pakenham is a part of has increased by $194.986 million to $869.9 million.
Eastern Victoria MP Renee Heath said the State Government had originally promised to deliver the hospital by this year.
“Where the hospital should stand there is a derelict building that is completely empty, covered in graffiti and not even safe,“ she said.
“So despite these promises, no work has been done, and by looking at the site it looks like no work is going to be done.
“I was contacted by several constituents who said they were not able to access the health care they needed, and the delayed care led to poor health outcomes.“
Promises for upgrades to local schools have been retained, with the $11.3m for Pakenham Secondary College, $8.7m for Emerald Secondary College, $10m for Pakenham Consolidated and $6.8m for Kooweerup Primary School.
Most are still scheduled on track, except for Kooweerup Primary, which has been delayed from an expected Q4 2023-2024 completion to Q2 2024-25 and Pakenham Consolidated School which is delayed from Q3 2023-24 to Q1 2024-25.
The budget also invested $948 million towards delivering the remaining 16 new schools out of the government’s promise to build 100 new schools by 2026, including a new primary school on Ballarto Road scheduled to open in 2026.
The Pakenham Line would also enjoy the benefits of the Metro Tunnel, which is expected to be fully operational by next year and will create an end-to-end line from Sunbury to Pakenham and will also be buoyed by the Pakenham Line being fully run by the latest High Capacity Metro Trains.
Buses are continuing to be improved as Pakenham Station will be a new bus interchange once the Level Crossing Removal is complete, sharing in $30m of funding across multiple new interchanges.
Pakenham Roads Project is moving along with $160m of it’s $391m budget spent, with another $140m to go in the list of works over the next financial year.
Bass MP Jordan Crugnale said another highlight of the budget was increased frequency of Kooweerup bus services and additional services to Leongatha and Yarram.
“I want to honour the dedication, commitment and sheer respectful pestering that the much loved late Cr Ray Brown did in his advocacy for better public transport for his community and am delight that the Kooweerup-Pakenham bus services will have its frequency increased to better suit modern life and how the community actually move around today,“ she said.
“We’re making sure families across Bass have the services and supports they need now and into the future.“
South-Eastern Metropolitan Liberal MP Ann-Marie Hermans said “another horror budget” had “reinforced Labor’s waste and continued mismanagement” with “catastrophic” debt rising to a projected $187.8 billion by 2028.
“Victorians are facing a debt that is punishing our economy, our lifestyles and passing on further long-term pain for our children and grandchildren to have to deal with,” she said.
Monash University politics expert Dr Zareh Gahazarian said he was expecting “a bit more” from the government as it was an opportunity for Jacinta Allan to “set new priorities” in her first budget as Premier.
“That it hasn’t been done to a great extent suggests that the government was financially constrained,“ he said.
“It could be a feature of the government to build its capacity to deliver bigger policies in the year leading into the 2026 election.”
