Rally against Westlink

Yesterday around 300 people attended a very successful rally against Westlink . We were treated to some fantastic music, especially "tunnel vision" by Phil Hudson which encapsulated the feelings of everyone at the rally.

We heard from some important speakers about what this road is going to do to our community when it is built.

It will:

• divide community ;particularly in Sunshine West and in Seddon,
• prevent residents from being able to walk and cycle in their local area, because a great big 4-6 lane road will go through the middle of it
• it will leave us with high levels of air and noise pollution.
• During construction it will cause cracking, noise, dust and destroy the value of surrounding houses.

Building this monstrous road will rip out scarce resources from the ground - and all because the Brumby Government refuses to implement the econmically and environmentally responsible option of improving rail for freight and putting in place fast, frequent and reliable public transport which would take the load off the westgate.

There is no logical argument for this road, other than increased profits for big business using the port. The Brumby government have shown time and time again they are not interested in economics, not interested in the environment and not interested in our communities. They are only interested in supporting increased efficiencies for big businesses moving freight as cheaply as they can off the ships and onto roads to the consumer.

The only way we are going to defeat this road is with large numbers of people getting angry about it and taking our concerns right up to Parliament.