Wednesday, 31 August 2022

Kilmore bypass

Ms RYAN (Euroa) (19:11): (6520) The matter that I wish to raise this evening is for the Treasurer, and it relates to the Kilmore bypass and the Andrews government’s apparent abandonment of that project. I think it is fascinating to listen to those on the opposite side of the house talk about the Suburban Rail Loop and all of the benefits that it is apparently going to deliver—a project of some $200 billion-plus that was dreamed up on the back of an envelope and that no-one actually asked for. My community has been asking, literally for decades now, for a bypass to solve horrendous traffic issues in Kilmore, and we cannot get the Andrews government to invest in that project. In 2018 the now Attorney-General, Ms Symes in the other house, told Kilmore locals, ‘The funding for land acquisition progresses this project to the next stage, and we will be in a strong position for full project funding. This is something which is on track’. She said that in 2018, and still we have not had a dollar.

The 2016 population of Kilmore was almost 8000 people, and it is now probably over 10 000 with the growth that we are experiencing. There are 1600 trucks going through Kilmore every day. Last week I was there with our candidate for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland, talking to traders about the impact that is having on their businesses, and it is killing Kilmore. There are shops right along the main street that have ‘For lease’ signs because of the volume of traffic that is passing through that town. Some people said to me that they no longer want to live in Kilmore. Their businesses are suffering so badly from a lack of investment and a lack of willingness from this government to do a project that makes sense on every level. While the government are spending billions of dollars in the city, we cannot get the few hundred million dollars that is required to build a vitally important piece of infrastructure. The main street in Kilmore is dangerous. It is like playing Russian roulette to cross the street.

I had hoped that during my time in Parliament this project would be built. To be perfectly honest, most people in Kilmore do not think that they will see it in their lifetimes, and there are people who are talking about moving away from the community because of that. The Nationals have given a very strong commitment at this election that if we are elected to government, we will invest 25 per cent of all new infrastructure funding in regional Victoria. That is double the current amount of funding that is being invested by the Labor Party. I think voters have a very, very clear choice at the coming election: they can vote for The Nationals, who in government will actually deliver projects like the Kilmore bypass, or they will get nothing from Labor.