Tuesday, 15 October 2024

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. In 2019 a government media release announced ‘Massive maintenance blitz for Victorian roads’. In 2020 it was mission accomplished with ‘Massive road maintenance blitz complete’. In 2021 it was mission accomplished again: ‘Major road maintenance blitz wraps up’. In 2022 the announcement became ‘Road maintenance blitz rolls out across regional Victoria’; in 2023 ‘Road maintenance blitz kicks off across regional Victoria’; and in 2024, finally, yesterday, ‘Road maintenance blitz revs up across regional Victoria’. When will the Labor government stop the spin blitz and actually fix our roads?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for South-West Coast! I will call the minister when the house comes to order. That was a very long preamble, member for Gippsland South.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Polwarth can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Polwarth withdrew from chamber.

 Melissa HORNE (Williamstown – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Roads and Road Safety) (14:30): I ‍really thank the member for highlighting our sustained and continued investment in road maintenance. It gave me enormous pleasure that yesterday we announced $964 million to go out there and fix our roads.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Berwick is warned.

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Melissa HORNE: There are roads that are going to be repaired in your electorate –

The SPEAKER: Order! I would like to hear the minister’s answer, member for Gippsland South.

Melissa HORNE: and in fact there have been works going on on highways in your electorate, fixing – sorry, in yours too, Speaker. There will not be a single part of this state that does not benefit from works continuing across nearly 400 kilometres in regional Victoria. It is a massive boost. This is the most massive boost that we have ever had to fixing roads. This is rebuilding, it is repairing and it is rehabilitating roads right across the state.

Members interjecting.

Melissa HORNE: Do not worry, member for South-West Coast, there are some works happening on the Princes Highway too in between Portland and Warrnambool.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for South-West Coast, this is your third warning.

Melissa HORNE: There are works happening across the state, and it is terrific that we have been able to fire the starting pistol on getting this work done, because, as the member has pointed out, it is an annual program. Last year it was $770 million, the year before it was more than that –

Members interjecting.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the question was specifically about when the roads will be fixed, not how much work we will keep doing on them for years and years.

The SPEAKER: The minister was being relevant to the question that was asked.

Melissa HORNE: There are crews out there now. There are actually crews out there now. This work was announced in the budget. As I said, we have fired the starting pistol on getting more crews out there to rehabilitate, resurface and repair roads.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:32): Labor’s own survey last year showed that 91 per cent of Victorian roads were in poor or very poor condition. What is the current figure?

 Melissa HORNE (Williamstown – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Roads and Road Safety) (14:33): Again I thank the member for his question. He is being a little shifty, frankly, with the data that he is quoting, because the data that he is quoting is actually around the surveys that we did for roads that were affected by floods, and guess what it showed: 91 per cent of the roads that were actually affected by floods were damaged. They are the roads that we are prioritising, that we are getting out there and fixing, and that will happen across the state. You know what, when those floods in October 2022 occurred, of the 79 local council areas, 63 of them were under water – 63 of them were flood affected.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, on the question of relevance, apart from the fact the minister refuses to release that survey, so we have to take it on her word, the question was about what the current figure is.

The SPEAKER: Order! Be succinct with your point of order. I cannot tell the minister how to answer the question. She is being relevant.

Melissa HORNE: Back to the question: a significant amount of our roads – in fact, 91 per cent of our roads – that were underwater were affected by floods.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Mildura is warned. Order! The member for Croydon is warned.