Thursday, 7 April 2022

Roadside vegetation

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (17:06): (6330) The action I seek tonight is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety to ensure that the roads of western Victoria, and those particularly in my electorate of Polwarth, receive increased funding in the upcoming budget to maintain roadside vegetation. I refer specifically to the median on the Princes Highway west between Winchelsea and Colac, which has remnant vegetation from before the highway was duplicated over the last 10 years. Some of that remnant vegetation has not stood up well to the road duplication and we now find very, very large eucalypts that are dead and are waiting for the next windstorm to blow them onto the road. We know—the evidence tells us—that big, dead gum trees, when they come down on a busy two-lane to four-lane highway, will cause damage, they will potentially cause death and they will cause great inconvenience on what is a major road.

Right across western Victoria this is a common and growing problem where trees that are no longer fit for purpose are being left on medians and on the edges of the roads, and these are accidents waiting to happen. The local Regional Roads Victoria need more resources and to have more time allocated to what are clearly preventative actions. It is obvious that preventative measures need to be taken to keep Victorians safe. Many will recall there were lives lost last year in the Dandenongs when large eucalypts fell down, and they were healthy ones. These are dead ones. We know they are going to collapse. Some of the ones in particular that I drive past when having to come to Melbourne and come into Parliament are at up to 10- and 15-degree angles leaning out over the road already. These are obvious accidents waiting to happen, and I urge the minister to make sure there is increased funding to see to that problem.