Pollies rail over public toilet

By Lia Bichel
TRAIN commuters may have to cross their fingers, and legs, a wee bit longer until a commitment is made to install a toilet at the Hallam station.
Residents have called for upgrades at the station but Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan said the State Government was rejecting requests to install a public toilet because of “security problems” and have also rejected a request to expand the car park.
He said the State Government was “ignoring” Hallam.
“First they cancelled a premium station upgrade to Hallam, which the previous government budgeted for, now they reject requests to open a toilet for the public because Hallam isn’t a premium station,” Mr Donnellan said.
“If the Hallam station upgrade had not been cancelled by the Baillieu Government, we would now have a safer, staffed station with public toilets for commuters.”
Shadow minister for public transport Fiona Richardson said the State Government was sending mixed messages to Hallam residents.
“The government says on one hand toilets can’t be placed because of lack of safety, but on the other can’t make it safer because of a lack of toilets. If protective services officers even get placed at Hallam, will they have to supply their own portable piss-pots?”
“The Baillieu Government has basically admitted that protective services officers will not make stations safer for local commuters by saying they won’t make Hallam station safe enough for a toilet to be installed.”
Southern Metropolitan Region MP Inga Peulich said the station was neglected for the past 11 years by the former Labor Government.
“Mr Donnellan and the Labor Party substantially blew the Victorian budget. If it had managed to keep costs and the Labor mismanagement under control the Casey community would be able to afford to install gold plated facilities at every station,” Ms Peulich said.
Ms Peulich said Mr Donnellan and Ms Richardson “both live 51km away in Northcote” and “do not care one bit” about public transport services in Casey.
“Meanwhile, the Baillieu Government is committed to improving accessibility for our local transport services in the south-east, for instance, the building of new railway stations in Lynbrook and at Cardinia Road,” Ms Peulich said.