Thursday, 8 February 2024

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (17:27): (519) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and my request to her is to come and visit the Five Ways intersection in Warrandyte South. While the Labor members opposite may get tired of my work to fix the Five Ways intersection, I will never tire of doing what needs to be done to keep my community safe. As I have said before, the electorate of Warrandyte’s top priority is my top priority, and that is fixing the dangerous and perilous Five Ways intersection. The problems with the intersection are so plain for anyone to see that I think if the minister saw with her own eyes the treacherous nature of it she would be compelled to do the right thing and fix it.

I am inviting the minister to do something that her government needs to do more often, which is to listen. Listen to the new drivers whose biggest fear is misunderstanding this homework assignment of an intersection and having their young lives cut short. Listen to the parents in my community who feel like they are taking their families’ lives in their hands every time they take a turn. Listen to the local businesses that surround this intersection, who are constantly pleading for the government to do something about this tragedy waiting to happen in Warrandyte South.

Just last week there was another head-on collision at the intersection, blocking traffic in both directions. Luckily, this time nobody was killed due to the inaction of the minister in fixing this intersection. Just yesterday a constituent told me that she nearly had a collision as a car pulled in front of her at the last minute, and as she put it, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had a calm drive through there.’ My community is constantly asking: how unsafe must it be before it is fixed? How many people need to have near-miss collisions and how many people need to crash before you wake up to this abomination of an intersection?