Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:34): (2496) My adjournment is also to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, regarding the long-overdue upgrade of Somerton Road in my electorate. I am sure the residents of Greenvale were poring through the budget papers, like I was, looking for a skerrick of any funding for any commitments only to find that they have been neglected, and that would be the case here, where there is no money to duplicate Somerton Road. As my residents keep asking me about, it is in desperate need of duplication – Somerton Road. It is a key east–west connection going all the way from Cooper Street to the Hume, all the way past Mickleham Road, connecting the communities of Greenvale, Roxburgh Park and Meadow Heights, yet you have this congestion point between Roxburgh Park Drive and Mickleham Road that is one lane each way. I know the minister for roads would be well aware of this key arterial and the bottleneck it causes at peak hour for parents dropping their kids off at school or picking them up or dropping them off at kinder or trying to get to medical appointments. This road is a daily nightmare for many, many constituents, thousands of constituents who have to use it every day only to be sitting in their cars stuck in traffic. We urgently need to consider duplicating Somerton Road. It is long overdue.

I spoke earlier today about planning studies on the Upfield line that never appeared. The government actually undertook a planning study in 2023. Do you think we have ever heard any results out of that planning study? Do you think it has ever been released? Do you think the government has ever acted on that particular planning study? No, it has not, because when Labor cannot manage money, it is Victorians that pay the price.

Victorians in Greenvale have had enough of the traffic – barely any budget commitments for constituents in Greenvale, who are stuck in traffic on Mickleham Road, who are stuck in traffic on Somerton Road and on the Hume, yet we see $15 billion fly out the door on to criminal construction sites through the CFMEU to the criminal underworld. We see $600 million wasted on the Commonwealth Games – $200,000 for pot plants – and all sorts of waste. When the government wastes and we have interest on our debt growing by about $1.65 million per hour, it is communities like the communities of Greenvale, Roxburgh Park, Meadow Heights, Westmeadows and Attwood that are the ones that pay the price for the mismanagement. The action I seek is for the minister to finally duplicate Somerton Road.