Thursday, 19 February 2026

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:47): (1524) My question is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety: what will the government do to reduce rat-running trucks in Kensington and deliver on the traffic-calming promises that they made to West and North Melbourne residents, which have never materialised? Since the state government’s West Gate toll road opened, locals in Kensington, West Melbourne and North Melbourne have seen a huge increase in cars, trucks and heavy vehicles on their small residential streets. Some trucks are using the streets as rat runs, and some traffic is actually deliberately funnelled onto small local streets due to the design of the West Gate toll road. This is causing serious safety issues for my local neighbourhoods, and I am deeply concerned it is only a matter of time before there is a serious incident. The Labor government also promised $100 million for traffic calming in West Melbourne due to the toll road, but unsurprisingly this never happened and now locals are feeling the impacts. For Kensington residents the Labor state government has not seemed to have offered any solutions to the rat-running, but these locals should not have to bear the consequences of the government’s poor planning due to the West Gate toll road.