Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Donnybrook Road, Kalkallo

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (18:17): (408) My adjournment is directed to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and it concerns my community in Kalkallo, particularly in the Cloverton estate along Donnybrook Road. This is something I have done lots of adjournments on in the past, lots of members statements on in the past and lots of constituency questions on in the past. I am seeking action from the minister to come out with me at peak hour in the morning so I can show her the traffic congestion in Kalkallo on Donnybrook Road. I also seek the action of the minister to give me some sort of explanation about when the slip lane out of Dwyer Street onto Donnybrook Road onto the Hume will be completed, because it has been almost a year since the re-election of the Andrews government and locals are telling me that they have not actually seen a shovel hit the ground or seen any consultation regarding this slip lane.

I was actually at Kalkallo on Donnybrook Road at 6 am yesterday to see for myself the traffic congestion, and I will tell you the cars in the Kalkallo estate were stretching back over 1 kilometre bumper to bumper. People are literally waiting an hour and a half just to get onto a main road because the Andrews government has played the worst game of Sims ever. They have completely botched the delivery of growth suburbs. You hear it in my electorate, you hear it in Wyndham, you hear it in Werribee and you hear it in Clyde – people not being able to get out of their own housing estates because the government has not made the necessary investments to cater for growth.

I am seeking the action of the minister to investigate and propose a business case for the duplication of Donnybrook Road, because if the minister goes out there herself she will actually see that a slip lane will do nothing. It will put people bumper to bumper onto the Hume, and it is just moving the problem further down. What we actually need is a duplication of Donnybrook Road. The government has approved all these precinct structure plans. They have taken all the stamp duty revenue, spent it in the inner city and not duplicated Donnybrook Road, where there are tens of thousands of houses going in. It is still basically, in some sections, the equivalent of an old farm track, which is what it was before Justin Madden moved the urban growth boundary. I am urgently seeking for the minister to prioritise the duplication of Donnybrook Road.