Tuesday, 26 November 2024

 Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (19:10): (945) I have a matter for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. Road users across my electorate complain about lots of issues, and deservedly so – potholes, of which there are way too many to mention, crumbling surfaces and unsealed shoulders. If you travel on the Goulburn Valley Highway between Yea and Molesworth, you must contend with all of those issues on top of the additional issues created by the centre wire rope barriers, all 10 kilometres of them, which are consistently dinged. It is now getting hard to see the barriers in amongst the vegetation which is growing in and around them. The action I seek is for the minister to arrange for the removal of the bushes, shrubs and trees that are growing next to and among the barriers. This needs to be done quick smart before they become more dangerous.

The vegetation is very much getting out of hand. There are too many bushes to count. Many are a metre high and almost as wide. There is definitely one gum tree in the mix and loads of grasses and weeds. Importantly, locals want to know how much higher do the trees and bushes need to get before they are removed. Surely they have reached this point now. Constituent concerns are threefold: firstly, the vegetation can impact visibility if not removed; secondly, the root system can undermine the road, and we know as trees get larger and bushes get larger the root system also grows and it can compromise the road surface; and thirdly, people are worried about how the barriers themselves undermine the road. There are so many points where the barriers are anchored to the road, and each of these points not only allows a seed to settle and we get a new tree or a new bush but also is an entry point for water.

We know that the roads are in a pretty dire state across Victoria and certainly across my electorate, and this is something that may have been able to be avoided. The centre wire rope barriers themselves have always been contentious. They were installed at an initial cost of $18 million. They were open for 5 minutes, the speed was reduced again, and the whole section was virtually resealed. They have got permanent overhead signs near Yarck and Limestone that are hardly ever on. These were at a cost of $530,000. They do not get used much. Currently there is a message about driving on drugs. Sometimes it might be about school starting, but there are no school crossings in the immediate vicinity. This is another area that I think has been neglected by the government. We should not have trees and shrubs growing out of the middle of the road where it is not a median strip. It is just in and amongst the centre wire rope barriers, and it is not good enough. People want to know what is going to happen and when it is going to happen.