Tuesday, 14 May 2024

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (14:49): Today the federal Treasurer will table the federal budget for 2024–25, and I hope that budget will deliver more for northern Victorians than the city-centric state budget delivered last week by the Allan Labor government.

Two key projects that need the support of both the state and federal government are the Shepparton and Rutherglen bypass roads. Both communities have lobbied for a bypass around their town for decades, and yet the Allan Labor government continues to ignore them and deny these projects the priority status they need in order to be built. Both projects were the subject of funding cuts in the Commonwealth’s infrastructure review process. Shepparton lost $208 million that had been allocated to the project by the Morrison government, and Rutherglen lost the federal component of the money that had been allocated for planning. In the meantime B-double trucks continue to travel right through the heart of the CBD in both communities. Shepparton has been fortunate that there has not been a major accident in the CBD, although during the state election while standing at pre-poll we witnessed several very close misses. Rutherglen has not been so lucky, with two major accidents occurring in recent weeks, one claiming the life of a local woman who was crossing Main Street. I call on the state government to prioritise both these projects and to work constructively with their federal counterparts to ensure funding is allocated for the immediate construction of both the Shepparton and Rutherglen bypasses.