Thursday, 14 August 2025

 Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:43): (1744) My constituency question today is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. My constituents are asking how long they will have to wait for the deep, dangerous potholes on the Murray Valley Highway on the bends at Kotupna to be fixed. In the past few weeks the condition of the Murray Valley Highway has been raised multiple times by my constituents. One particularly dangerous section is the bends at Kotupna east of McCoys Bridge. I have personally had to dodge the deep, almost invisible potholes along this section on both sides of the highway. Many of these potholes you cannot see until you are right on top of them, which can cause drivers to either swerve dangerously to avoid them or risk damage to their vehicles by hitting them. These potholes are particularly dangerous at night-time. With many trucks travelling this road every day, it is a miracle there has not been a major traffic incident along this section of the highway. I know the minister will try to blame the 2022 flood event for some of this damage, but let us be real: it has been almost three years since that event, so it is time the road was fixed properly.