Great Ocean Road safety
Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (09:40): I rise this morning to put on the record the hard work that some 456 members of the Jan Juc and Torquay community have done to put together a petition for the awareness of this house around the fact that there is a need for a safe crossing on the Great Ocean Road in the vicinity of Strathmore Drive. In that area we have, a short distance away, the Bellbrae Primary School and the Christian College Geelong Surf Coast campus, both growing and vibrant school communities with most of their students living on the other side of the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road is a major conduit for tourism and people visiting and enjoying the wonders of the Great Ocean Road region, and it carries a lot of traffic. This section is still an 80-kilometre zone, and people are distracted by the beauty and the views that they can see in the distance, so it is setting up as a recipe for disaster if we do not put the infrastructure in place. Due to changes in planning and development in the Torquay area, plans from the past to create a crossing no longer exist. There is wonderful bike infrastructure being developed on the other side of the road. The time is now right for the government to get in and support the Surf Coast shire and the Jan Juc, Torquay and Bellbrae communities to get a safe crossing for pedestrians and bike riders and for the school communities.