Wednesday, 13 August 2025

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (19:05): (1838) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action that I seek is for the minister to fund and prioritise the upgrade and signalisation of the intersection of Maiden Gully Road and the Calder Highway. In May this year, ahead of the 2025–26 state budget, I called on the government to include funding for two vital intersection upgrades in Bendigo: the Howard Street–Midland Highway intersection and the Maiden Gully Road–Calder Highway intersection. Shamefully the Allan Labor government refused funding for both. It really is astonishing that these two essential road projects, one in the Premier’s own seat and one in the Speaker’s seat, have gone unfunded by Labor governments for years, even though they are top priorities for the Greater Bendigo City Council.

I have spoken several times in this place about the Howard Street intersection, and in tonight’s adjournment I want to highlight the increasing need for action on the Maiden Gully Road intersection. As housing developments boom in West Bendigo and the Maiden Gully area, traffic is rapidly increasing, producing dangerous driving behaviour where residential streets join the Calder Highway, and there have been numerous crashes along that section of road. There is a serious risk of fatal collisions at these intersections, and addressing this risk must be a top priority for the Victorian government as traffic is about to increase even more. Growing enrolments at the nearby Marist College and Maiden Gully Primary School will continue to increase traffic density, and in 2023 VCAT approved a large retail centre with a supermarket on Carolyn Way, directly opposite the intersection of Maiden Gully Road and the Calder Highway. A local community association was recently told that the centre is on track to open in mid-2026, which makes the road project even more urgent.

It is essential that the intersection is upgraded and signalised as soon as possible, before increased traffic from the supermarket overwhelms the local road network. The City of Greater Bendigo officers say that there have been several attempts to make developers foot the bill for the traffic lights, but the situation is complicated because there are multiple companies working on several small projects, none of which is large enough to cover the bill and recover the costs later. Council officers believe that a coordinated approach between local and state governments is required and report that the Department of Transport and Planning has a preferred alignment for this project and is costing a state budget bid. Signalisation of the intersection is critical for safe traffic flow through the growing residential area, and it is also essential to unlocking further housing developments that are waiting for infrastructure upgrades before they can proceed. Regional Cities Victoria estimated the cost at $7 million, and this is a project that the Victorian government should be prioritising.