Thursday, 20 February 2025

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (09:49): I rise today to express the huge frustration of communities right across Polwarth with the increasing lack of maintenance of our roadways and our highways. Not only are we talking about the road surfaces, which have been spoken of much in recent times with the potholes, the 80-kilometre-an-hour zones, the 40-kilometre-an-hour zones and the complete deterioration of the road surfaces, but there is another new crime being committed against the roadways and communities of country Victoria, and that is the upkeep and maintenance of our roadsides. It is beyond comprehension that in this day and age so much rubbish and litter can be allowed to just continue to build up along our roadways. A drive from Colac to Melbourne now will see mattresses, piles of rubbish, rubbish dumping, wheel tyres, tyres and plastic shrapnel everywhere on the sides of the roads. Not only is it unsightly and unbefitting of a modern, First World country, but it is also a potential danger, as these things can be blown and moved around on the road surfaces. It is simply not good enough.

Communities are really rallying against this, with quite a few volunteer groups now appearing along the coast in Torquay and Anglesea and down in Apollo Bay, with people getting together and having to go and pick up and clean up the rubbish that is continually building up on our roadways. The government must restore its funding to roadside maintenance.