Wednesday, 19 June 2024

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (10:49): I rise to speak in this committee report debate on the report of the inquiry into the impact of road safety behaviours on vulnerable road users, published last month. There are a number of sensible and well-researched priority recommendations that come out of this report – namely, developing a road user hierarchy, creating a vulnerable users advisory group to contribute to the development of road safety interventions, reviewing the flexibility of speed zoning guidelines, reviewing the location of pedestrian crossings on arterial roads, prioritising road treatments in regional areas and investigating opportunities for vulnerable road users to self-report minor crashes and near misses and many other recommendations. Indeed there are 56 recommendations in total.

Two out of every five lives lost on Victorian roads so far in 2024 were of those who had little or no protection in the event of an accident on roads, footpaths and driveways. These vulnerable road users include pedestrians, bike riders, motorcyclists, the frail and elderly, people in wheelchairs and people with disabilities or a reliance on mobility devices.

Road safety and road maintenance are inherently connected. If the government truly wants to protect vulnerable Victorians from road fatalities, it must first ensure that the roads are fit for use to begin with. It is now effectively conventional wisdom that Victorian roads are not fit for use or up to standard; in fact it has been said that they are the worst roads in Australia. This is particularly the case for regional and peri-urban roads, with the government’s own statistics showing that 91 per cent of our regional roads are in poor or very poor condition, and a recent RACV poll on the state’s country roads received a record 7000 responses, the largest response ever received to the survey, which clearly shows that a great number of Victorians are concerned about the state of disrepair of our roads.

Yet the state of our roads has come about not due to any accidents but by a deliberate 45 per cent cut to the roads maintenance budget since 2020. In fact in regional Victoria there has been a 96 per cent reduction in the level of maintenance being done in 2024 when compared to the previous year. This is just disgraceful and further proof that this Labor government has not managed the economy well at all, despite being in government for nearly 21 of the last 25 years and for the last 10 years in a row. Labor in this government have now built up more than $130 billion in debt and are paying more than $15 million in interest per day. This is projected to grow to over $187 billion in a few years time and $25 million in interest per day by 2027. This has meant insufficient funds for roads, road maintenance and indeed road safety. That then has a flow-on effect for road safety, as mentioned, but also for lives, particularly those of Victorians with the worst roads in neglected areas.

Indeed locally in my electorate of Mornington road maintenance and safety have been totally neglected by this Labor government – for example, the many dangerous intersections on Nepean Highway, which I have consistently raised since and before my election. One example is the need for a dedicated merge lane for cars turning right from Mount Eliza Way onto Nepean Highway, an extremely dangerous intersection with limited visibility where there have been a number of crashes, injuries and, sadly, deaths. I use this intersection frequently as a Mount Eliza local, and it can be almost impossible at times to see beyond the cars and hill and for oncoming traffic travelling south on the Nepean Highway to be able to turn right. A central merge lane would enable a much safer right turn for drivers and cyclists.

Further, the Forest Drive and Uralla Road intersections with Nepean Highway in Mount Martha are notorious, striking fear into the hearts of locals every time they drive through them. These were fully funded by the former federal Liberal–Nationals government but delayed again and again by the state Labor government and even put on the chopping block last year by the federal Labor government. Finally, after locals, Zoe McKenzie MP and I practically begged the federal and state Labor governments to maintain the funding and commence the repairs, they buckled, keeping the funds and saying that the repair works will now commence in mid and late 2024. I just hope they do not delay it further.

Generally, there have also been so many other concerns with state roads across the electorate, whether that be Nepean Highway, Moorooduc Highway or elsewhere, as well as shire roads, the latter also not having sufficient funds with rate-capping and cost-shifting by the state government. There is also the need for upgrades to east–west roads like Mornington-Tyabb and Bungower roads, and there are many potholes, like at the intersection of Fulton and Humphries roads in Mount Eliza. There is much more that needs to be done.