Tuesday, 15 October 2019

 Mr ONDARCHIE (Northern Metropolitan) (18:04): My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Roads. It concerns Mickleham Road as it extends from Westmeadows through Greenvale out to Craigieburn—

Mr Finn: It is a shocker.

Mr ONDARCHIE: To pick up Mr Finn’s interjection, it is a shocker. And also Somerton Road as it extends from Greenvale through to Roxburgh Park. Those roads, as the residents would describe it, are an absolute nightmare and in urgent need of some attention—duplication to say the very least. By way of example, residents tell me, as they told Michael O’Brien, Jim Overend and I when we were out in Craigieburn the other night, that a short trip that would normally take 5 minutes by car in a normal environment can take up to 40 minutes—40 minutes to go to the shop, 40 minutes to drop the kids at school. It is ridiculous. There are stories of dropping kids at school and waiting 30 minutes to get back out of the car park in the morning or of picking up the children from the local school in the afternoon and waiting 45 minutes to get back onto Mickleham Road from the school grounds.

They are essentially small country roads, and now that development has happened alongside and north of those roads, it has just become such a metropolis that the roads simply cannot cope with the traffic. It is affecting family lives, it is affecting lifestyles, it is affecting people’s ability to get to jobs on time or get home on time and it is causing significant family stress, as we heard loud and clear last week.

Interestingly enough, the local member for that area is the Parliamentary Secretary for Road Infrastructure.

Mr Finn: Who is it?

Mr ONDARCHIE: Whoever the local member is. They do not know her very well out there, and nothing is happening. The one who is advocating very strongly for the community out there is a local resident who has been advocating for roads and support out in Craigieburn, a fellow called Jim Overend, who is doing a fantastic job—a fantastic job.

Mr Finn: Everybody knows Jim.

Mr ONDARCHIE: They do know him out there. The action I seek from the minister—because the local member has not been able to achieve it, maybe we can achieve it—on behalf of Jim Overend and the local residents, is that the minister join me for a visit to Mickleham Road and Somerton Road to have a look at the stress and to meet with the families and hear their stories. They are desperately in need of some attention, and they are getting nothing from the local member.