Greg Barber MLC is one of the elected Greens in the Upper House of Victorian State Parliament and he represents the Northern Metropolitan Region. Find out more at Greg's About page

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V/Line performance beyond a joke

20th May 2013 5:22 pm

Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber says V/Line's latest performance figures show a system that is failing, with the Geelong line on a downward spiral and regular passengers on every line but one eligible to claim compensation for poor punctuality.

"This is getting beyond a joke. I call on V/Line to publish the reasons for each and every delayed train so the Napthine government can be held responsible for starving V/Line of funds," said Greens MP Greg Barber

Victoria's black hole: East-west road tunnel

The state government has announced a road tunnel to be dug under the inner suburbs of Melbourne between Collingwood and Flemington.  From Alexandra Parade, under the Melbourne Cemetery, Royal Park and thousands of homes the western end of the tunnel will emerge through a sports field, urban wetlands and billabong before joining with the Tullamarine Freeway.

Unfortunately – but unsurprisingly – many of the details of the project remain a state secret.  Most residents whose homes stand to be affected have not been notified that their state government intends to push this tunnel through despite objections or the exorbitant costs.  The east west road tunnel is looking like an information and budget black hole.

East West Tollway tunnel exit to destroy park, traffic in city

17th May 2013 10:09 am

The planned East West Tollway will have an open cut exit ramp at Elliott Ave Parkville, between the Royal Melbourne Zoo and the Children's Hospital, which will dump traffic in the city.

"It will destroy open space and wetlands in Royal Park, expose residents to pollution and pour traffic onto Elliott Avenue near Flemington Road, making road congestion worse," said Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber

"You'd better believe we will fight this one all the way." 

"The route animation released by the Linking Melbourne Authority shows the Elliott Ave exit before the CityLink exit.  We always knew the tollway would have a city exit or nobody would use it," said Mr Barber

Declare western Vic drought to help dairy farmers

9th May 2013 1:32 pm

Greg's photo of dairy country in western vic, where autumn rains have failedVictorian Greens leader Greg Barber has asked the State Government to declare western Victoria as drought affected, triggering Federal assistance.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Mr Barber said "I am requesting that [the Minister] take action to have western Victoria declared to be drought affected, and to lobby for federal assistance for farmers in that area. Last week Queensland declared large parts of the state to be drought affected."

"Over the past couple of weeks I have been all over western Victoria and the picture is quite stark - poor rainfall over the last six months, record lows in some areas, and a forecast for more of the same. It must be obvious to the Premier, given that this is part of his own electorate. He cannot have missed the fact that there is a lot of heat and drought affecting his electorate."

Parliamentary Committees Amendment Bill 2013

09/05/2013

Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) -- Since the 2006 state election -- the election in which I, Ms Pennicuik and Ms Hartland came to this place -- we have been advocating for a Senate-style system of committees and a range of other mechanisms to improve the scrutiny role of the upper house. Some progress has been made towards that, and we continue to advocate for that. As Mr Viney has just quite correctly said, we now have the structure of an upper house, Senate-style set of committees which can systematically hold the government to account and scrutinise governmental programs, legislation and individual issues as they arise. What we do not have is the resourcing for those committees to do their jobs, and we do not yet have embedded in this place the political culture that says those committees have the right to do their jobs.

We blew all the money on a road tunnel

09/05/2013

Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) -- I thank Mr Ramsay for that introduction. He is like my warm-up man over here!

The budget we have just seen delivered of course represents the political philosophy of the Treasurer, Mr O'Brien, and the Premier, Dr Napthine. It is hard not to notice how radically anti-environment this budget is. It is almost like it was put together by a couple of high priests of some sort of fossil fuel burning cult. There is actually an environment section in the glossies that go with the budget. What it contains is quite literally a statement of how if it moves, they will shoot it, and if it does not, they will cut it down, along with a new set of incentives to start digging more stuff up.

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