Members statements
Polwarth electorate roads
Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (09:36): Over the winter break I had the great fortune of having a Polwarth road trip and managed to get round to nearly every community within my electorate. Some of the 3000 kilometres I did over the winter break was from visiting the towns of Derrinallum, Lismore, Camperdown, Cobden, Port Campbell, Timboon, Lavers Hill, Apollo Bay, Wye River, Lorne, Winchelsea, Colac, Aireys Inlet, Anglesea, Jan Juc and Torquay. In every one of those communities, people were pleased to come out and have a talk about the state of Victoria. Overwhelmingly the community talked to me about the appalling state of the roads they have to deal with. Whether you are out in the Corangamite shire along the Hamilton Highway, where you regularly have to endure 80-kilometre-an-hour or less-kilometre-per-hour roads because the state and condition of the roads is so appalling, or whether you are down in the Surf Coast shire in Jan Juc, Torquay, Aireys Inlet or Anglesea, where you have to continually put up with a shire that is now in such a parlous state with its road network that they are petitioning the state to move all speed limits down to 80 kilometres an hour, this is what country people now have to endure. Not only does our region have to suffer the humiliation of no longer bringing the world to us during the Commonwealth Games, but we cannot even get around our own electorates.