Northern Victoria Region
Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (14:14): (972) My question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. When will work finally commence on the long-awaited traffic lights and upgrade of the Graham Street and Goulburn Valley Highway intersection? Goulburn Valley hospital is located on Graham Street, and the intersection with the GV highway is always busy with ambulances, patients, local residents and buses. For the smooth and safe flow of traffic, this intersection desperately needs traffic lights. In 2022 the then minister Ben Carroll said that $700,000 was allocated to the intersection upgrade, but two years later nothing has been done. In March this year I spoke in Parliament to ask why there was such a long delay, and the minister replied that they were waiting on Commonwealth funding. $2.2 million of federal funding was announced in May this year, so the state Labor government no longer has any excuse to delay this project. A cyclist and a bus collided at this intersection on Monday, which shows how unsafe it is. The minister must act now to get the upgrade works started as soon as possible.