Wednesday, 13 May 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:02): I move:

That the petition be taken into consideration.

Nearly 170 years ago gold was discovered, and the town Maryborough was born. In search of wealth and opportunity, prospectors rushed into the area, and soon a police camp, post office, hospital and church sprang up. At its peak Maryborough brought in tens of thousands of people. It was one of the wealthiest towns in all of Victoria. If you have ever had the privilege of visiting Maryborough, you will no doubt have seen the incredible architecture from the gold rush period, particularly its grand old train station.

Sadly, like many of our rural towns, Maryborough is being left behind. Over the years, particularly under this government, Maryborough has seen a population shift to Melbourne, and every time a service closes the shift accelerates. You cannot expect people to stay when the government keeps taking things away. Why do young people leave? Because they do not see opportunities in their local community. They are forced to pack their bags and go in search of work. Eight years ago, in my maiden speech, I spoke about this very problem. I reminded this house that real decentralisation requires enabling infrastructure to shift the population from the city to the bush, and I stressed the importance of government providing the services that the private sector cannot. When Telstra leaves, when the RACV leaves, when local businesses pack up, that is a free market verdict on a town that has been left behind.

Government cannot control business decisions, but it can control whether it adds to the exodus or fights against it, and on VicRoads this government chose to add fuel to the fire. Maryborough has been at the coalface of that failure, and until we commenced our campaign just eight months ago VicRoads, Maryborough, was on the chopping block. So let me explain exactly what happened and why this community had to fight so hard.

In 2023 the then CEO of the shire signed a document agreeing to the Maryborough VicRoads office being reclassified from a sub-branch to an agency. The crisis was triggered when VicRoads then changed its funding model, moving from full cost reimbursement to a transaction-based model. This left Central Goldfields Shire Council facing a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, with an interim arrangement only in place until 31 October last year. In late September 2025, hundreds of people travelling from as far as Charlton, Swan Hill, Ararat and Melbourne packed the Maryborough Education Centre performing arts centre to demand answers. I know because I was there, and so were my colleagues Joe McCracken and Danny O’Brien. Earlier that day, business owners, transport companies and farmers had blocked Nolan Street for over half an hour to register their anger. It was about the farmers who rely on in-person services, the historic car clubs that cannot function without them, the elderly on driving restrictions who are geographically locked out of basic services, the year 12 students who have to choose between sitting an English exam or passing a driving test and an entire regional economy depending on a functioning VicRoads office. And what did the member for Ripon have to say? Reportedly, she admitted she found out about the crisis at the same time as the community. It beggars belief that a government MP does not know what her own government is doing.

I commend the organisers, particularly David Hendrickson, who is in the gallery today, for their efforts in the campaign. Thanks to them, we have two parliamentary petitions with over 3500 signatures on this issue. To collect that number of signatures, equivalent to nearly half of Maryborough, is no small feat. It reflects the mood of a town that feels ignored and forgotten. The Liberal Party sees you and hears you. Joe McCracken and I have raised this in Parliament on many occasions. As far as I can tell, Martha Haylett has done so just once, and during that contribution she spent half her time attacking the opposition and the other half congratulating herself. In December I asked the Minister for Roads and Road Safety to confirm that VicRoads has no plan to close offices. We need to keep the VicRoads office open – (Time expired)

 Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (18:08): I want to start off by acknowledging the 2000 residents of Maryborough who have signed this petition, but I want to be crystal clear – Maryborough VicRoads is here to stay, and it is staying with its full services. I am actually puzzled about how we find ourselves here tonight having this debate and with the Liberals whipping up fear. In communities, particularly in regional communities, in-person services are critically important, and if locals are looking at having to travel long distances – you know, having grown up regionally myself, I can understand where this fear can come from. It concerns me that the Liberals and the Nationals, the coalition, have been seeding this unnecessary fear in the minds of many locals.

Local MP Martha Haylett has made it clear – she stood in Parliament and stated that VicRoads is here to stay. Services in regional towns are critically important, and like Martha, I am proud to be part of a government that invests in services in regional communities. We are building state-owned early learning centres in Clunes, in Avoca and in Maryborough. We have invested $18 million in the P–12 school in Maryborough. We have funded aged care upgrades and $115 million for the hospital. Compare this to the history of the Liberal–Nationals. Bev is very, very good with history, but she has left a lot out of her contribution – oh, Mrs McArthur, I beg your pardon. We have got a relationship where we can go by first name, but I apologise. With nearly a decade in federal Parliament, their coalition member delivered nothing for Maryborough. And while the federal member may have delivered nothing, that pales in comparison to what the state Liberals did – closing schools, privatising hospitals and closing the railway.

I grew up in the region in the 1990s, and I recall pubs closing and footy clubs merging. The services that were cut and the jobs that were lost had an impact on families. When manufacturers left Maryborough and the government services left and private companies followed on, it had a real, hard-felt impact across the district. I had mates that went to school in Maryborough – mates I lost in my late teens. There was a bitter feeling, and drought compounded it. When you put drought with these services being ripped out, it really impacts regional communities and families, particularly young people.

Mrs McArthur talked about people moving to Melbourne. I am proud that Labor, over subsequent governments, has reinvested in the rail services, has invested in education, has invested in health and has invested in early education so we can keep families in our regional towns and so we can make sure that there are jobs in our regional towns so that people who are from those towns can age in their towns with their families, with their loved ones and with the communities they know, which is why the investments we have made in public aged care are so valuable.

I do not want to be too political, but it is very rich of Mrs McArthur to stand here and say X, Y and Z about the Labor Party when the lived experience of people in seats like Ripon is that it is the Labor Party that has made the long-term investments in infrastructure and the long-term investments in services that support the quality of life of people and support the longevity and the ongoing possibility for the town not only to survive but to thrive. We have seen a move back to regional Victoria in recent years, one that at my age seemed an impossibility as many farmhouses and houses were left to rot into the ground rather than be taken on.

I will just close by saying that we have seen the Liberal coalition budget reply, with its $40 billion black hole. From a political party who is ideologically opposed to government investing in communities and to government investing in people and families and ensuring the jobs and the services they need to make sure those towns have a future and the people who live in those towns have a great future, I think that regional Victorians should be very, very concerned indeed about what the Liberals have planned. I will leave my contribution there.

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (18:13): I am pleased as well to rise to support this petition sponsored by Mrs McArthur. The people of Maryborough are not asking for anything other than certainty. They want to know that VicRoads will continue to be there in Maryborough for the long term. I am not just talking about the next five years, the next extension, but the long term, because being able to access VicRoads should not be considered a luxury that city people get. It should be a standard service that government should provide – simple things like being able to register a vehicle, changing numberplates, taking a driving test, obtaining a licence or going in and speaking to a real person. It should not be a controversy that these simple functions are considered basic expectations that citizens of the state have a right to access. They should not be forced to drive to Ballarat or Bendigo in order to access them either.

However, when the threat of closure was thrust on the Central Goldfields community that understanding changed. I attended a number of community events along with Mrs McArthur to talk about the issue, including public meetings – and Mrs McArthur outlined the very huge public meeting at Maryborough Education Centre – as well as a public rally through the streets of Maryborough, and it was huge. These are not the violent protests that we see on TV going through Melbourne. These are decent, hardworking country people that are just trying to send a message not to forget them, and they feel forgotten by the government. All they want is some common sense.

I want to thank David Hendrickson for being at the tip of the spear in driving this grassroots local campaign. He is supported by a very capable local team. Without his tireless efforts, his strong sense of community and his ability to bring people together, we may have been bulldozed by this Labor government. VicRoads may have been savagely cut if it were not for people like David and the hundreds of locals who signed on the dotted line and supported this petition. Because regional communities matter. They may not matter to those over there, but they actually matter. We might be small, but we are important and you cannot continue to ignore us.

I stand proudly shoulder to shoulder with the Central Goldfields community in asking – actually no, demanding that a commitment is made by this Labor government to ensure that essential services like VicRoads are never even threatened to be ripped away again, because we all pay taxes in this state – and thanks to them, they are high taxes. You have got to look at our country roads. We know that the money is certainly not being spent there. We have got to look at our train services that they love to trumpet about. They are certainly not there. The Central Goldfields shire are pushing for that. You guys have ignored them. They are certainly not being sent there, so the least you can do is give certainty to a community to provide them with an office which is fully staffed and provides in-person services to those that want to access those services, just to pay a bill, just to take a driving test in their own community in the conditions they would be driving in, to be able to talk to somebody who is local and who wants to serve locals. If you support country Victorians, you would support this petition.

I thank Mrs McArthur for sponsoring this petition and the huge number of people in the Maryborough community that have responded to it. I do want to respond to Mr McIntosh’s comments just quickly, in that he was puzzled how we got here. I can understand why he would be puzzled. He said it was unnecessary fear.

Tom McIntosh: Why we are here, not how we got here, why we are here.

Michael Galea: Please do not verbal him.

Joe McCRACKEN: Unnecessary fear, you said. Well, I do not think it is unnecessary fear, and I would not say the same thing either, because it is those in the Maryborough community that are feeling that fear as well. To say that about us and the Maryborough community is not exactly fair, particularly those who want to bring this petition to the chamber and have their voices heard. We seem to have a fetish for Jeff Kennett, who left office 25 years ago, last century. He is living rent-free in your head clearly and living rent-free in Labor’s head. The only black hole that we have got is a black hole of truth, which you seem to ignore straight away. Forty billion dollars is a figure – you do not even know where it has come from. You have made it up. You do not care about country people because you do not care. You are all mouth, no money and you have got nothing to offer regional Victorians.

 Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (18:18): Thank you Mrs McArthur for bringing this petition before the chamber tonight, and to everyone who has actually signed this petition and had your voice heard in this chamber. VicRoads is a very important service. I have got three kids with P- plates now, and so I have been there a number of times, but I think it was something I raised in this Parliament before – the potential closure of VicRoads in Kyneton. I certainly raised that with the minister, because that was a concern raised with me by the local community. Maryborough – I recall when that issue arose as well, speaking to a local councillor and residents there who were very concerned that the service may close and people may be forced to travel so much further.

I do commend David Hendrickson, who has already been referenced in this chamber tonight, for his contribution and so many that were part of that campaign in the local community, because it is essential for elderly residents, people with limited transport options, those without reliable internet access, it is important to be able to go and visit VicRoads and access the services. But at that community meeting, people had a chance to share their concerns and I commend Danny O’Brien, the Leader of the Nationals who did attend, and he was a very strong advocate and spoke with media and wrote letters to the editor on this issue. But I remember looking into it at the time and VicRoads, and it is interesting, Mr McIntosh’s comments tonight, because when Labor have taken moves to privatise, they call it a joint venture. It is okay when they can do that. But in this case, with VicRoads, they did a part privatisation.

They did get a $7.9 billion up-front payment – the deal was finalised I believe in 2022 – and it was a 40-year partnership that they signed up for. So here we are with this situation that arose. It was pushing the costs again onto local councils, and we have seen that time and time again. I have been part of local council sustainability funding. We have seen with library services and rubbish collection that there are a whole lot of areas where the government is mandating change and then pushing all the costs onto the local council, which ultimately is borne again by the ratepayer, so yet again we pay more taxes. But I think it is important to consider that the government made it clear, in doing that part privatisation, that they will maintain ownership and control of VicRoads, so any end to services is clearly a decision made by or the responsibility of the state government. I think being able to maintain that service is something that the Nationals are very keen to see. We always are committed to regional infrastructure, to investment, to services in regional areas and to keeping those essential services in regional communities. I do want to mention Jo Armstrong, who is the Nationals candidate for the Ripon electorate in that community. I know her on a personal basis. I think she has been a councillor now and a mayor for over 10 years, a farmer in business and an incredible advocate, and she would be an outstanding member to continue to advance the need for maintaining services in regional Victoria.

As has been described previously, this whole situation about Maryborough and VicRoads was considered a David and Goliath battle, and I think it is a real credit to the local community that they did so much to advance the cause, and I think that is what democracy is about. Writing or signing a petition is your chance to have a say. There were some that organised a community meeting and did a bumper sticker. You can contact your local member of Parliament. You can contact your local newspaper, share your views and make sure that you are heard. You can even stand for election. I will say, with the state election in November, make your vote count, because we want to see services – essential services – maintained and expanded in regional Victoria.

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:22): I thank my colleagues – Mr McCracken, Mrs Broad, even Mr McIntosh – for contributing to this debate today.

[NAME AWAITING VERIFICATION]

While we are acknowledging people, I would like to acknowledge Megan Reid in the gallery, who is a very highly regarded Ripon resident and very concerned about this issue.

The government claims that the service is continuing over the next five years, but what they are not telling you is that the service is already starved. There is reportedly just one person behind the counter, no phone lines or internet for customers to book appointments, no licensed testing officers to conduct driving tests and no recruitment underway, with just one manager qualified to conduct inspections. This is not a victory. This is not good enough, and this house should not pretend otherwise. Because here is the truth about what happens when government withdraws from regional communities: every service that closes is a reason for someone to leave and a reason for no new person to come.

Population decline is not a justification for cutting services; it is the consequence of cutting them. This government has had it backwards all along. The answer is not complicated: build the infrastructure, provide the services and the people will come. Maryborough has the equipment, the demand and the community will; the only thing missing is a government that matches their commitment with its own. I call on this government to stop treating Maryborough as a problem to be managed and start treating it as a community worth investing in, and I thank all the thousands of people who contributed to the petition and who have stood at meetings and tried to advocate to keep Maryborough VicRoads office open.

Motion agreed to.