Thursday, 19 June 2025

North East Link

Jess WILSON (Kew) (17:15): (1205) My adjournment is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and the action I am seeking is for her to clarify exactly what changes have been made to proposed noise walls in North Balwyn as part of the North East Link Program. As the minister will know, construction on the North East Link continues to affect North Balwyn residents, who have lost significant amounts of parkland and continue to face the noise pollution of heavy construction at all hours. Earlier this year, I jointly hosted a forum with residents and provided their detailed feedback to the minister. The response I received failed to address or even engage with most of the issues raised. In fact the minister suggested constituents liaise directly with the Big Build team. Well, the minister will be interested to know that residents have indeed recently attended Big Build information sessions on noise walls, only to be told there have been reductions in the size and scope of the noise walls along the Eastern Freeway due to cost issues. Residents have told me that officers at these information sessions suggested that there have been significant changes and downgrades to noise walls from the original urban design and landscape plan designs. Changes apparently include a reduction in noise wall height in some instances as well as changes to the construction material that may impact the effectiveness of the walls when it comes to noise reduction – their primary purpose.

I am also concerned that there seems to be ambiguity in terms of the impact on Belle Vue Primary School in terms of what noise walls will be installed at their border with the Eastern Freeway and what impact the construction of those walls will have. The North East Link Program has acquired, both permanently and temporarily, much land during the construction phase, and there seems to be uncertainty as to what will be the case at Belle Vue. I ask the minister to clearly state what the impact will be of noise wall construction at Belle Vue Primary School. I ask the minister to provide a clear and concise overview of the original noise wall specifications and how these have been changed over the past 12 months, as well as the justification for those changes, so that residents may actually evaluate their impact. And I ask the minister to guarantee that the North East Link Program traffic noise objective of lower than 63 decibels will be met. If this is indeed a change in the design and the specification of noise walls because the Allan Labor government is failing to manage money in this state, it is simply unfair that constituents in the electorate of Kew, in North Balwyn, will continue to be impacted by the fact that the noise levels during the construction phase and the ongoing number of traffic increases along the North East Link Program will not be dealt with because this government cannot manage money.