Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Northern Metropolitan Region

Dr RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:23): (1671) My constituency question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. Last week I visited the Bell Street Merri Creek bridge site at the border of Coburg and Preston and met with some locals from the Safe Access over Bell Street Bridge for Everyone group. It was shocking to see how unsafe this intersection is and that the local community and schoolchildren in particular are being left vulnerable despite their ongoing efforts to get safety assessments done as soon as possible. We welcome that VicRoads is now planning to do some minor traffic calming works, but that is simply not enough. Minister, I request that you urgently provide a commitment to an immediate comprehensive safety assessment of the Bell Street risk zone to ensure the protection of Coburg High students.

Mr Grimley: On a point of order, President, under standing order 8.13, I am raising a series of questions on notice that have not been answered dating from 16 December last year. They are in the portfolios of the Attorney-General, health, police, child protection and corrections, and I would like to request that the government responds to these as a matter of priority if possible, please. The numbers are: 3903, 4376, 4377, 4664, 4665, 4666, 4667 and 4738.

Ms Symes: On the point of order, President, I was just going to respond positively to Mr Grimley’s point of order. I just received a text message from my office saying, ‘Do you want us to bring in your adjournment and constituency question folder?’, so I will get to it.

The PRESIDENT: First of all, the point of order is out of order. According to standing orders Mr Grimley can raise this on Wednesday. But, Mr Grimley, since the minister has answered you already, I think we have dealt with it.

Mr Ondarchie: On a point of order, President, I bring to the house’s attention some constituency questions that have been unanswered for quite a period of time: 1602, asked 27 days ago; 1548, asked 98 days ago; and to the Minister for Health, 1208, which was asked 273 days ago. I am not sure how far outside the 14-day window the government thinks that is, but 273 days to answer a constituency question that is so important to them is totally unacceptable.

The PRESIDENT: Again, Mr Ondarchie, you know there is nothing under my control that I can do about this.