Tuesday, 3 March 2026

 Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (19:00): (1549) I have a matter for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action I seek is for the minister to ensure repairs are made to Mansfield-Woods Point Road at Woods Point. Essential repairs are required between the town and the Woods Point Gun Club and right downtown across the road from the hotel, where the shoulder of the road is downright dangerous. There was a half-baked effort to make repairs to the road between the town and the gun club, which left townsfolk flabbergasted. Mansfield-Woods Point Road was fully closed to traffic on Tuesday 17 February from 6 am to 6 pm but only to repair one tiny strip of road less than 100 metres long. Potholes were left. I saw this firsthand when I visited Woods Point for their community meeting for the bushfires last week, and the half-patched job was most underwhelming. The deep potholes were not repaired, not even filled in. Someone painted a white circle around them, which seems to be commonplace. I would be happy to send photos to the minister if she requires them; they include the appalling condition of the road in the town precinct. Some of these potholes are full of muddy water, and you cannot see how deep they are from the car, causing drivers to avoid them by driving on the opposite side of the road.

Transport Victoria stated that the works would involve asphalting, sealing and line marking as part of the 2025–26 maintenance season, but it has been very disappointing to see the final result of these half closures. The section of road across the road from the pub, which is in Scott Street, is very, very dangerous. The shoulder is completely worn away, and there have been recent incidents. I saw footage where vehicles turning around had actually been stuck there, and it required quite a bit of local operations to get those vehicles back on the road. Community users are pretty sick of this, and I have raised these matters in Parliament before. Whether it is Mansfield-Woods Point Road or Warburton-Woods Point Road, both of them are in need of repair. They are only small communities, but these are government roads and there are commuters in a number of the small towns between Woods Point and Mansfield that need to have these repairs made. I ask the minister to urgently have a look at what has been done and what the plans were, because I think the minister will be disappointed to see the half-baked result that we have and I know the townsfolk in Woods Point are particularly unhappy about it.