MEMBER for Mildura Ali Cupper is preparing to attend State Parliament for the first time since February.
Ms Cupper said she was excited about returning to present to parliament key issues facing her electorate.
“It’s going to be good to get back to parliament and keep doing all of the work that we’ve been elected to do,” she said.
Parliament returns on Tuesday.
Ms Cupper made the tough decision to stay in Mildura earlier this year, during sittings.
She said through social media in March that she did not want to bring COVID-19 back to her electorate.
“I’m quite fit and healthy and chances are, based on probability, that if I was to get coronavirus it wouldn’t be fatal,” she told Sunraysia Daily.
“But I am very closely connected with a number of people who I see on a daily basis and who it probably would be, or could be, fatal to.”
Ms Cupper admitted travelling to Melbourne was a risk but she felt it was safe enough to return.
In parliament she will raise three key issues: funding for the Mildura South Regional Sporting Precinct, airconditioning in public housing and the State Government’s consideration of limiting flows through the Goulburn River.
Cupper’s key campaigns
Mildura South Regional Sporting Precinct
Ms Cupper recently launched her #GameOn campaign to call on the Victorian Government to contribute $10 million to the precinct project.
The campaign will lead up to the State Budget and aims to ensure the sporting precinct project is fully completed.
So far the Victorian Government has chipped in $3 million to the project, while the Federal Government has provided $17.5 million and Mildura Rural City Council $11 million.
Ms Cupper said an extra $10 million from the Victorian Government would ensure all stages of the Mildura South Regional Sporting Precinct could be completed.
Public housing airconditioning
There is no legal requirement for the Victorian Government to install airconditioning in public housing.
“Airconditioning in the height of summer in our climate is not a matter of comfort,” Ms Cupper said.
“It’s a matter of survival and human rights.”
Ms Cupper said she was consistently lobbying the government for a change in rules that would make airconditioning compulsory.
“We are experiencing more heatwaves and higher temperatures and the government needs to acknowledge that with corresponding rule changes,” she said.
Limiting water though the Goulburn River
Ms Cupper said the Victorian Government was considering whether it should limit Goulburn River flows.
She said while this would be environmentally good for the river, other aspects of limiting flows needed to be considered.
“It could potentially lead to higher water prices because of greater scarcity of water in our region,” she said.
“We are hoping, and we have asked, the government to consider deferring any decisions on that until next year on the basis that there is plenty of rain forecast and the urgency doesn’t seem as great at this time.”
