Thursday, 27 August 2026

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn) (17:37): (1817) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action I seek is for the minister to urgently address a serious pedestrian safety risk at Windsor Crescent and Lorne Parade Reserve on the border of my electorate of Hawthorn and the minister’s own electorate of Box Hill. Along the southern side of Union station, a dedicated pedestrian and cycling path runs from Windsor Crescent and continues around Lorne Parade Reserve. The path was delivered as part of the Union station level crossing removal project. It was designed to separate pedestrians and cyclists from vehicles and provide a safer off-road connection through the precinct. Immediately beside it is Lorne Parade Reserve and a children’s playground. Yet footage seen by my office shows a hatchback travelling along Windsor Crescent, mounting the pedestrian crossing, turning onto the pedestrian and cycling path and simply driving along it. This is not a driveway. It is not a road It is a path specifically built for pedestrians and cyclists running immediately alongside a reserve where young children play. Alarmingly, I understand this is not an isolated incident. Local residents have observed vehicles entering the path on at least half a dozen occasions. The government said safety was a key theme in designing the Union station precinct. It deliberately built separate infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists and promised safer connections through this community. Yet somehow motorists can simply mount a pedestrian crossing and drive onto the very path that was built to keep pedestrians and cyclists separated from cars.

I want to acknowledge Sally Houguet, the Liberal candidate for Box Hill, who has been listening to concerned residents, visiting the area and advocating for action to address this risk. Sally brought this issue to my attention because locals are rightly asking a simple question: what is being done to stop this happening again? Disappointingly, I am to understand the minister, as the local member for Box Hill, has been aware of these concerns since June 2025, and it is now August 2026. The minister may only recently have assumed responsibility for roads and road safety, but he has represented this community for nearly eight years. He is now uniquely placed to fix this problem. The answer might be bollards, it might be a barrier, it might be altered kerbing or another treatment recommended by road safety experts. I am not asking the minister to accept my engineering advice. I am asking him, however, to have his department urgently assess this site and implement the appropriate solutions. If we build a dedicated infrastructure for our community to keep pedestrians and cyclists separated from cars, surely the very least we can do is keep the cars off it.