Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Heavy vehicle parking

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (19:50): (330) My question is for the Minister for Planning. Will the minister work with their federal and local government counterparts and stakeholders to solve the critical heavy vehicle parking shortage? Because if it is not dealt with now, it will hobble the next decade of road transport expansion and productivity, especially in the Western Metropolitan Region, which I represent. For example, I have been told that the rezoning and cheap release of the Derrimut Grasslands adjacent to Fitzgerald Road would be a good way to utilise the Commonwealth funding available for this purpose and to deliver a dedicated heavy vehicle driver fatigue management facility.

The massive increase in infrastructure and industrial capacity in my region has exacerbated the already critical shortage of long-haul heavy vehicle parking sites. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator is rolling out 30- to 35-metre high-productivity vehicles, and yet it is common knowledge that refuelling centres in Melbourne are barely coping with the current 26-metre vehicles as it is. Currently the constant blame-shifting harms local residents just as much as heavy vehicle and local truck drivers, who are so often so desperate to rest that they end up parking illegally all over our suburbs. We need to look after our truck drivers. They kept us fed and clothed in the longest lockdowns in the world, and often it is a lonely, thankless and dangerous job. For their safety and ours we need to do what we can at a state level to make sure that truck drivers can access toilets, showers, food and rest.