Tuesday, 9 December 2025

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (22:21): (2234) My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety but concerns the nervous member for Ripon. Unfortunately, the member for Ripon made some ill-considered comments in the Assembly last week about me – comments which the Labor Deputy Speaker had to rebuke her for. These comments revolved around the future of Maryborough VicRoads. I make no apologies whatsoever for standing up for the people of Maryborough so they can retain their VicRoads because it is likely that they were the next cut in Labor’s savage cuts to regional Victoria. The member for Ripon said that VicRoads in Maryborough will be there for five years. If that is true, I welcome that. But locals want certainty and truth, and I can understand why they do not exactly trust her word.

We have to remember that this is the same member for Ripon who has been going around telling farmers that she supports them. But then on the other hand, when the time came to make a difference, she put her hand up in the air and voted for the VicGrid legislation, which literally fined farmers thousands of dollars just in case they refuse access to government-authorised officers on their land. This is the same member for Ripon who tries to attend CFA brigades – those that will actually have her – and feign support for volunteers. But when the time came to make a difference, the member for Ripon put her hand up and supported the emergency services tax, the same tax that crushes brigades. She supposedly supports it and throws farmers under the bus. And you know what her excuse was? ‘I have no say over it. I have to go with the majority. I have to vote with my party.’ That was the excuse that was given to locals. And which party is that? The government, the Labor Party, the party that hates regional Victoria, the same Labor Party that presided over the biggest housing crisis in this state, the same Labor Party which neglects rural roads and the same Labor Party that cut funding to the police. They think that the solution is machete bins. How is that one going? This is the same Labor Party that has created a health crisis, resulting in ramping and waiting lists ballooning out – the same tired old Labor Party that for 11 years has been driving the state’s finances into the ground with $50 billion of cost overruns in projects. That is the Labor way. That is the Labor legacy.

So the action I seek from the minister for roads is simple: release the Maryborough VicRoads agreement publicly so the community can actually see it. We on this side of the chamber will never, ever stop supporting regional Victoria because we value our regional communities. It is in our DNA; that is who we are. I will never, ever apologise for holding the Labor member for Ripon to account, because she has been punching down on regional Victorians and treating them like second-class citizens. I will never stand for that.