Wednesday, 26 August 2026

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (10:10): I rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on the 2025–26 budget estimates, chapter 6 specifically. In subsection 1 I draw the house’s attention to the Department of Transport and Planning’s capital spend budget. On this subsection I want to raise, as I have many times in this place, the funding that has been secured from the federal government for the dangerous intersection of Tortice Drive and Ringwood-Warrandyte Road in North Ringwood. This is an intersection that local families have raised with me ad nauseam. They have raised it with me time and again. Local families have told me that as they travel through it every single day they simply do not feel safe using it. One local mum recently told me that after 7:45 in the morning, because it is so congested there and so unsafe, instead of taking her kids directly to school she has to make a detour in order to get her children to school. It is that dangerous. When parents are changing their daily routines because they are frightened to use an intersection on a suburban road, the government needs to listen. There was a crash at this intersection only a few weeks ago. It is the access route to get to the Maroondah Toy Library, which I frequent with my toddler. It is also where the local dog park is. It is where the local men’s shed is. It us where the local community hub is and where the community house is. It is a thoroughfare for people to gain access to those important community assets, yet there is such danger at this intersection.

It was a former coalition government that secured $4.7 million to fix the Warrandyte Road and Tortice Drive intersection, with VicRoads identifying traffic lights as the preferred solution. Regrettably, the federal Labor government then decided to pull this funding despite having put traffic lights at the other end of Tortice Drive. The funding was secured, the solution was identified, and the community is well and truly ready for action as it has been, as I said, raised endlessly with me. My job as the local MP is to fight for our community, to stand up for the people of Ringwood North, Park Orchards, Warrandyte and surrounds that use this intersection and these roads. Therefore I call on the government to fix this intersection – protect the funding, work with the federal government and get on with fixing this dangerous intersection. The community should not have to wait for another crash before they act. I will keep fighting until Tortice Drive is fixed.

Continuing on with chapter 6, subsection 1, regarding the Department of Transport and Planning capital spend budget specifically, I want to mention the government’s $1.2 billion road blitz in this chapter. Again I want to raise an issue that I have raised time and again endlessly in the house. I think this is the 19th time that I have raised the Five Ways intersection in Warrandyte South. Locally it is the Ringwood-Warrandyte Road, Croydon Road, Husseys Lane and Brumbys Road intersection – or as locals will know, it is the intersection outside Shell. That is the one I refer to.

It is three years today since I was elected, so I am celebrating three years in office today. In my very first speech to Parliament, my maiden speech, I raised fixing the Five Ways intersection. Ever since I have been a vocal local advocate for this amongst many other vocal advocates, whether it be the Warrandyte Diary, the Manningham & Nillumbik Bulletin or other local advocates or the CFA brigades and others who have called for the fixing of this intersection. In addition to that, I have submitted more than 43 separate questions on notice. I have campaigned and advocated to all levels of government for action and was very proud to see secured $25 million of both state and federal funding for this crucial, crucial project in my electorate. I was really heartened to see when I picked up the budget papers that year that $25 million secured in the budget papers, funding that I have fought for since my very first day standing in this chamber. Despite the community support for this project, we have had no update on its construction since the close of the community feedback survey the government conducted late last year. The funding has been secured for over a year, yet our community is still waiting. I ask the minister directly: when will construction begin? The funding is there. The community support is overwhelming. The safety need is undeniable. What is the hold-up? I will keep fighting day in, day out until we see this problem fixed.