Tuesday, 29 October 2024

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (19:10): (885) My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. I ask the minister to meet with Dr Anver Sethwala, a cardiologist from Geelong who drives to and from Warrnambool to provide specialist cardiology services, to explain to him why he should risk his life on our roads while he is trying to save other people’s lives. Recently I was contacted by Dr Sethwala, who tells me that he is the only cardiologist in the area. He has tried to hire cardiac professionals to join him to help meet the large unmet demand in the region, to no avail. He commented that the commute on hazardous roads – swerving to miss potholes at high speed, particularly after a long day, and driving back to Geelong in the dark – is deeply concerning to him and dissuading others from working in Warrnambool. He said:

Road safety is of utmost importance, and it sad to see us jeopardize our safety to serve the community. I plea that work is done on the stretch of the Princess Highway and the Warrnambool Cobden road, so that we in turn are looked after.

This is outrageous. People do not feel safe driving on our shocking roads. Consequently, they are discouraged from working in our area. This means that regional Victorians have difficulty getting the medical services they need locally. I have been raising these concerns in the Parliament consistently. It is clear we are facing a road crisis in South-West Coast. This is not just unfair to locals but also to visitors who are commuting long distances to provide essential services and other business services. This story highlights the very real and dangerous impact the roads conditions have, not just on everyday commuters but on the ability of the regions to attract and retain critical health professionals. Another recent event concerns a road accident. Emergency services personnel told me that a police car hit a pothole on the way to the scene of an accident and blew a tyre, and the damage was so great they could not turn up.

The Allan government recently announced roads maintenance funding which was allocated in the 2024–25 budget. This reannouncement attempts to mask reduced spending and the neglect of our roads which has led to deterioration at a very dangerous level. This is just insulting to Victorians. Roads need regular preventative maintenance, otherwise they deteriorate to the extent that they need replacing. There is an old proverb: ‘A stitch in time saves nine’. If you do not patch a hole in a garment, it grows to a gaping hole and becomes unwearable, and that is what has happened here. Our roads are riddled with potholes, rutted, cracked and breaking up right across the state. It is not just a pothole here and a pothole there; it is a pothole everywhere. The metrics for road maintenance used are per square metre per annum. This is the number of potholes they are measuring, and that figure is skyrocketing. It is a sign of complete and utter failure.