Thursday, 4 August 2022

Sydney Road upgrade

Dr READ (Brunswick) (14:20): My question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. In 2019, following a lengthy co-design process involving many stakeholders, VicRoads surveyed residents of the inner north about their views on four possible designs for the Sydney Road shopping strip. The option with a separated bike lane was preferred by a clear majority of the 7000 respondents. VicRoads’s design included accessible platform tram stops and wider footpaths. When will the government provide this much-delayed and much-needed upgrade to Sydney Road in Brunswick?

Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, Minister for Business Precincts) (14:21): Can I thank the member for Brunswick for his question. It is an important question, and bike lanes are important because they are a little bit like emails—they make wonderful trails. I do thank you for that question. But on a very, very serious note—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! I need to hear the minister for roads’s response.

Mr CARROLL: Bike lanes are very important. They are a part of everything we are doing, and the Andrews Labor government, through its Big Build, is doing an incredible amount of work—some 250 kilometres. If you think about the portfolio that the member for Brunswick highlighted, roads and road safety, there are another 100 kilometres right through our suburbs. They are vitally important.

Now, the one that the member has identified is on Sydney Road, and the member would appreciate how important Sydney Road is for small business and for the trams that he identified. The other thing to consider with Sydney Road is the Rolls-Royce Upfield bike path that is literally only some 50 metres away, that I have been on and I know he has been on. While I am talking about it, I just want to just give credit to the member for Pascoe Vale for her advocacy for the upgrade of the Upfield bike path. That does run parallel with Sydney Road. We know we have got more to do, and we will continue to do that.

I think the member also asked about accessibility and tram stops. The last state budget had just over $157 million for accessibility, and again everything we do through the Big Build is about increasing accessibility. We know our people with disabilities right throughout Victoria love to get on public transport. That is why through the Big Build, through our level crossing removal program, through our rolling stock initiative, everything we do is about improving accessibility and livability for people with disabilities to make sure public transport is the first option for them, it is something they consider and it is something they use whether they need to get to TAFE, to school or to work. We have got a lot more to do, and I am happy to continue this conversation with the local member.

Dr READ (Brunswick) (14:24): I thank the minister for his interest in these issues and his answer, but I would encourage the minister to come and have a look with me and see first of all that it is 5.5 kilometres between the two accessible tram stops on Sydney Road, between Brunswick and the terminus much further north, and also that south of the upgraded Upfield bike path, which finishes halfway through Brunswick, you have got to go for a couple of kilometres either down Sydney Road or through a very constricted bike path along the Upfield path. Will the minister come and have a look with me and see how reduced the options are in Brunswick?

Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, Minister for Business Precincts) (14:25): Thanks to the member for Brunswick for his question and his request. I am certainly happy to come out with him and look at some of the issues he has raised and to ensure that when we are continuing to make those important investments, such as the $3.5 million released only a few weeks ago with the member for Pascoe Vale—

Mr Andrews: Weren’t you there the other day? You were just there. You don’t need to go back.

Mr CARROLL: I was there with you recently, Premier, looking at that level crossing at Bell Street that has gone, which is pretty impressive too. So there is a lot going on in Melbourne’s north. We have got big investments to come, but we are very proud of what we have been able to do with the Upfield bike path. I just want to quote to the member—it has actually been given to me here—the Saturday Paper, ‘New look for Upfield railway line’. It says here:

The bike path, now wider and smoother and with better sightlines and night-lighting, plus bike repair facilities and secure parking at the train stations, has turned into a cyclists’ paradise.

So I think we would all love that, but I am certainly happy to come and have a latte and do what we need to do.