Wednesday, 17 August 2022

Roadside vegetation

Mr RICH-PHILLIPS (South Eastern Metropolitan) (18:07): (2066) I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Roads and Road Safety in the other place, and it relates to the management of roads and road environs by the Department of Transport. This is now a recurring theme that I have received from a number of my constituents throughout the south-east, and the most recent constituent is actually in the Premier’s electorate of Mulgrave. It relates to complaints about road management around Springvale Road and Mulgrave Freeway in the vicinity of Mazenod College, where the road verges are not being maintained. Blackberries are growing wild, and they have not been dealt with by the Department of Transport or their contractors for many years. This is an issue which is recurring throughout the south-east: road verges not being maintained, median strips not being maintained and the centre of divided roads not being maintained, which is becoming a road safety hazard where drivers cannot see vehicles at roundabouts because the grass in the median or the grass in the middle of the roundabout itself is too high and blocking traffic views.

Complaints from constituents are going unanswered. The Department of Transport, formerly VicRoads, are not responding to emails. Multiple emails from constituents are not being responded to. The works are not being done. Presumably the Department of Transport has contractors in place to manage roadside maintenance, but it is not occurring. Whatever management arrangements are in place to oversee those contractors within the Department of Transport are not working.

So the action I seek from the Minister for Roads and Road Safety is to ensure that his department is doing its job—to ensure that the road verges and road environs throughout the south-east are maintained in the way that they should be. Budgets are provided by this Parliament for that work to take place. Contractors are in place from the Department of Transport, but the work is not being done. People within the department are not doing their job, this work is not being completed, and the residents throughout the south-east, including this most recent complainant in the Premier’s electorate, are sick of it. They are not getting the services they have paid for, and it is about time that they did.