Tuesday, 29 October 2024

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (22:45): (1225) My adjournment is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety or the Minister for Transport Infrastructure – whichever works better – and it is to direct their department to urgently upgrade and duplicate Donnybrook Road in my electorate. Donnybrook Road is a disgrace. I drive on Donnybrook Road very often, probably more than the members for Kalkallo and Yan Yean combined, to be honest, and it is a disgrace. The state of the road is dire. Lelani from Olivine estate wrote to me recently:

The condition of Donnybrook Road is appalling – worse than roads in some third-world countries. It remains a single lane almost up to the freeway entrance, riddled with potholes, and lacks pedestrian walkways. It’s truly horrendous.

She goes on to say:

The pain points of the residents will be glaringly obvious. Numerous new estates are being approved, yet they all funnel into the same horrendous Donnybrook Road.

This is the perfect summary of how this tired Labor government treats constituents in the north, forcing massive new developments and not bothering to back them up with infrastructure, including roads and road upgrades that are needed to make living there sustainable and livable.

Our growth areas are being starved of the appropriate infrastructure because Labor have botched the delivery of new growth areas. There has been a lot of talk this week about the GAIC, the growth areas infrastructure contribution levy. Growth areas are not getting the infrastructure they deserve because of Labor’s botched approach. When the Liberals were in government we allowed in-kind contributions so developers could partner with the government to deliver infrastructure before residents moved in. The way that Labor changed the process and botched the process means that hundreds of millions of dollars – billions – get siphoned into Spring Street, wait for years for costs to increase and then get delivered less to growth areas in dribs and drabs, and there is actually no starker example of this than Donnybrook Road. In 2012 my colleague Matthew Guy signed off on a development contribution plan with the developer MAB that duplicated the Mickleham side of Donnybrook Road. You have got a beautiful four-lane road with a large median on the Mickleham side thanks to the Liberals, and on the Kalkallo and Donnybrook side you have got an old farm track with tens of thousands of new homes going in and with Kalkallo and Donnybrook bursting at the seams thanks to Labor. My constituents in the outer north deserve safe, accessible and fit-for-purpose roads, so I repeat my action calling on the minister to duplicate Donnybrook Road.