Wednesday, 19 November 2025

 Darren CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (10:26): I think over the last few years Victorians have been disappointed to see an increasing road toll throughout our regions. The reality is that new technologies that have been introduced, particularly on smartphones – Waze, Google Maps and a whole raft of others – provide drivers useful information and in fact real-time information about the state of the roads, broken-down vehicles on the sides of roads and other things. They have in so many ways made commuting that much safer. Disappointingly, though, it also enables those who wish to speed to speed, because of course the enforcement regime that we have in place – our fixed cameras and the like – can be actively sidestepped by drivers, who accelerate once they have passed a camera and slow down when the next one is due. I think it is timely that the state government consider more fixed cameras to be introduced in Victoria. On a recent trip interstate I was surprised to learn that almost all roads into our major cities around the nation have this technology.