Thursday, 5 March 2026

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (10:22): Locals who send their children to Warrandyte Childcare and Preschool Centre have raised with me the issue of the unsafe crossing on Ringwood-Warrandyte Road. Last week I visited the centre during peak hour to see the issue for myself. It is a 70 kilometre-per-hour zone in Warrandyte. Every single day families take their lives into their own hands just to drop off and pick up their children. On the day, I witnessed that myself. There were families who create a bike bus to get their kids on their bikes to be able to drop their kids to school. It is their bit that they are doing for the environment, where they are hopping on their bikes or choosing to walk. It is on this busy stretch of road, where you have got cars coming in and out, you have got two bus stops dropping off kids as well and you have got this heart-stopping moment where families have to run across the road with prams, with toddlers, with kids, with kids on bikes to be able to just get through the way. There have been far too many near misses that I have heard about from concerned parents, and I call on the government to urgently act before tragedy strikes. We need a safe crossing solution at this centre, and we need it urgently.