Tuesday, 17 February 2026

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:07): (2316) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action I seek is for the minister to expedite the start of construction of an upgraded and signalised intersection at the Kialla West Primary School. For over seven years I have been repeatedly calling for the government to take action to make significant road safety upgrades at the pedestrian crossing and intersection outside Kialla West Primary School. My advocacy on this issue began in 2018, when a car picking up children from school was hit by a truck at the school crossing, leaving a mother and three young students seriously injured. One of those students still suffers from the consequences of that accident today. Since then I have raised this matter in Parliament several times every year, and yet still the Allan Labor government has failed to take any action.

When the government announced it would build a co-located early learning centre at the primary school to open in term 1 2026, I immediately warned the government that it would have to urgently upgrade the road infrastructure at the school in order to safely accommodate the increase in traffic. Then due to Labor’s inability to manage projects, construction on the early learning centre was delayed. This provided a perfect window to fix the road issues before the construction vehicles were in the area and before the early learning centre creates even more traffic, but yet again Labor ignored my call and took no action to fix the road safety issues.

Sadly I now have to report that just last week there was another vehicle collision outside Kialla West Primary School. At 3:40 pm, during the busy afternoon pick-up time, a parent of a school student was pulling out from the Cemetery Lane side road and due to a number of factors had limited visibility of a ute travelling south on the highway, which collided with their vehicle. Thankfully no-one was injured, but this accident could have had horrific consequences. The parent involved in the collision contacted me afterwards, pleading for safety upgrades to the intersection and saying that it should not take a serious injury or fatality for decisive action to happen.

I completely agree, and I urge the minister to take note of the recent traffic accident and respond appropriately by expediting the start of works to upgrade the crossing and the intersection. The safety of students and parents at Kialla West Primary School cannot wait any longer. There is a high traffic flow around the school in the morning and afternoons, and though there are reduced speed limits, they are not always followed or enforced. Even cautious drivers can find themselves in a risky situation when pulling out from the side road or pick-up area because of speed, congestion and multiple points of entry and exit. Safety upgrades to the pedestrian crossing, pick-up points and the intersection with the side road are all desperately needed, but Labor is totally failing to show any urgency to solve this problem.