Western Highway
Ms STALEY (Ripon) (09:42): Last week the Minister for Roads and Road Safety joined the election year conga line of ministers who have found Ripon again and came to Ararat to boast about the road blitz that he believed had reached its destination. One of the roads that he wanted to boast that his department had done some maintenance on was the Western Highway. Well, on his way back in his chauffeur-driven car to Melbourne he would have had to drive on the Western Highway, and the Western Highway today at Trawalla is down to 60 kilometres an hour because the road is potholed, the sheeting is removed and there are huge ridges along the side. Even on the way in he would have seen these terrible conditions on a road that he was then coming to Ararat to boast that he had fixed. If that is the best they can do on road maintenance in this state, then they are not fit to be the government delivering road maintenance, because clearly the Western Highway is not fit for purpose when you have kilometres at a stretch down to 60 kilometres an hour. Their own media release admits that they have now finished doing roads until September, so we are stuck with it for all of winter. It is absolutely hopeless. They come in for a picture—just go home!