Thursday, 28 October 2021

 Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (18:10): (6120) The matter I raise for the adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action I seek is for the minister to provide a time and a date by which the Coldstream community can have confidence that the Killara Road and Maroondah Highway intersection will be fixed. This is a fully funded project from the federal government. It will not cost the state coffers a cent, and my community wants to know when this road will be done. It has been sitting there as a project. The Andrews Labor government has shelved it as a project and, quite frankly, the Coldstream community have been ignored by this Labor government and just want a date when this will be done, so the action I seek is for the minister to provide that date. There is $20 million committed to this project, and so far the Andrews Labor government has been dragging its heels and has been silent on the project. It is simply not good enough. The last thing that the Coldstream community needs is another accident at that intersection. If there is a fatality, that will be on the shoulders of this Andrews Labor government. The road infrastructure has been significantly poor in my community. Also, part of the action I seek is for a time line on fixing the Warburton Highway in Seville East.

These are two road infrastructure projects that I have asked the minister about in the past and, sadly, there has been an inadequate answer for the residents in my community around fixing dangerous local roads. Residents in my community deserve to be safe when they get out on the road and, quite frankly, the minister needs to provide answers to my community as to when these roads will be fixed. What are the dates? The Warburton Highway in Seville has had many accidents and continuously has accidents. In fact the Seville CFA do a fantastic job in my community, but probably what keeps them the busiest, apart from in the height of the bushfire season, is going and fixing road trauma incidents on the Warburton Highway at Seville. In terms of the roads and the fixing of the roads and taking seriously road safety in my community, so far the Andrews Labor government has not, and so the action I seek is that the minister provides dates on when Labor will pull their finger out, effectively, and give dates for those road projects in my community.