Wednesday, 5 March 2025

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (09:40): The Allan government has unleashed another ridiculously expensive bureaucratic nightmare on regional community events, forcing them to cancel because of prohibitive costs. One of the first victims is the Bridge to Bridge event in Cohuna, which had to be cancelled last Sunday because their traffic management charges went from $2000 last year to $22,000 this year – yes, $22,000 for a small community event. Instead of raising money for the local hospital as they have for years, they were just raising money to pay GAME traffic management for the Allan government’s stupidity. I say ‘stupidity’ because the Allan government has blindly implemented the updated Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management, which is a national standard for major projects and road closures, not traffic management for small community events that raise money for their local community. Last year GAME had two traffic controllers for the Bridge to Bridge. This year under the new rules they said they had to have 13 traffic controllers. The locals have rightly asked, ‘Why do you need a traffic controller on a dirt track that no-one uses?’ It is just plain stupid – another example of how red, green and black tape is strangling regional Victoria. When will it stop? Will the local netball and football clubs have to have traffic controllers when they go for a training run? Will they have an expensive stop-and-go attendant in hi-vis colours on every corner of their training runs? I say to the Premier: get control of the bureaucrats in this state before more events like the Bridge to Bridge have to be cancelled.