Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Committees

Economy and Infrastructure Committee

Reference

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (10:14): I rise to speak on motion 6 on the notice paper, standing in my name. This motion was put on the agenda in December, the day we were all sworn in to this Parliament. I move:

That this house:

(1) recognises the poor state of Victoria’s roads, especially in rural and regional areas;

(2) notes the consequences of damaged road surfaces, including the safety of all road users and the economic and environmental damage caused by repeated repairs to vehicles such conditions make inevitable –

and furthermore –

(3) requires the Economy and Infrastructure Committee to inquire into, consider and report by 29 February 2024 on the state of Victoria’s roads, including but not limited to:

(a) the budgetary resources dedicated to road construction and repairs in Victoria, with comparison to national and international experience;

(b) the methods and standards of design, construction and maintenance of road pavement and surfacing, with comparison to national and international experience;

(c) the value for money achieved by the existing Victorian system of delivering road surface construction and maintenance, including:

(i) the tendering process;

(ii) contract requirements, including technical specifications of works;

(iii) quality control and project assessment;

(iv) longer term ongoing assessment of road surface quality; and

(v) clawback mechanisms for inadequate quality of delivered work.

These are all absolutely straightforward proposals that should be obvious and a no-brainer to everybody.

This is a terrible and poignant time to have this discussion. The weekend just past was truly horrific on Victoria’s roads. Ten people died in six separate accidents – that is 10 lives lost, but many more forever altered by life-changing injuries and by ongoing mental and physical anguish. Countless families have been left bereft.

I spoke yesterday about the effect on communities. Hamilton, in my electorate, suffered a horrendous tragedy when two teenage boys, a teenage girl and an adult woman died in a horrific accident, with another girl left fighting for life. In a town of Hamilton’s size, with around 10,000 people, there are very few degrees of separation. As I said here yesterday, if you do not know the families involved, you will perhaps know one of the first responders – the police, the paramedics or the SES volunteers. You will know one of the teachers or students at the schools. Road trauma rips apart families, but it ripples throughout entire communities. It is felt deeply and widely, and sadly, we must multiply this pain. I can speak from personal experience, having lost my son to a road accident.

In advance of this contribution I have hesitated each time in updating this next section. Every time I look again the number has risen, and I hope desperately, but I know pointlessly, that it has not risen again since my last investigation. These deaths bring the state’s road toll to 133, a full 37 more than this time in 2022. At this rate the death toll will be close to 300 by the end of the year – 60 more deaths than the running five-year average. That is the context for this discussion.

We cannot attribute all deaths to the condition of roads – accidents have multiple, complex causes – but it is a significant and exacerbating factor. Even where they are not the primary cause, poor road surfaces can make close calls into accidents and minor accidents into tragedies. Those who drive on Victoria’s roads know that smashes can result from hitting potholes, from dangerously uneven surfaces, from crumbling road shoulders or from vehicles swerving onto or driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid these dangers. I did suggest in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee last year to Mr Pallas that our potholes have now become craters, and he suggested that was just Liberal Party propaganda. I did invite him for a tour of our country roads. He would have seen what dangers we have in the way of potholes and bad roads.

Worst of all, as I have raised recently in this place, the minister has assured me that not keeping statistics is how we operate in this matter. In response to my adjournment debate on 8 February, which asked for a breakdown of the percentage of serious and fatal road accidents where investigating officers identified road conditions as a contributing factor, I was told the data is not available. While road conditions, they said, are assessed by Victoria Police as part of serious and fatal road accident investigations, the overall evaluation of the environment is holistic in nature and does not allow for the requested data reporting.

I ask you: how ridiculous is that? These factors are apparent to investigators, and they must be recorded. How else can we tell what is truly causing the road toll? How else can we determine where to allocate resources in dealing with it? This is a serious and pressing matter for a committee inquiry, and my key argument here is that a committee is the proper place for these matters to be investigated.

We can all play politics. We can all stand at the side of a road and get a picture with a pothole. They make for good social media, although there is never enough space for the amount of potholes that we could cover. In some of those in Western Victoria we can even stand in a pothole and get a picture.

Joe McCracken: It’s true.

Bev McARTHUR: It is absolutely true, Mr McCracken. And, as Mr Mulholland’s enterprising constituents well know, we can plant a tree in the ready-made hole and start a roadside botanical garden. Now, that might be the only way we get potholes fixed in Victoria – good for the botanical enterprises but not good for road users. But this does have its limits, really. If we want to effect change, we need a serious, concerted, deliberative study, including international comparisons, inviting expert witnesses and producing a plan which will not just improve our roads but save lives.

I was on the road toll inquiry in the last Parliament, and the sole recommendation, really, was just to lower the speed limit. Now, that might be okay in the City of Yarra – down to 30 – but I tell you: out there in country Victoria driving at 30 or 40 kilometres an hour totally wrecks your program to get children to school or product to market.

Joe McCracken: It still happens, though.

Bev McARTHUR: But it still happens, Mr McCracken helpfully advises me, because in many areas in our electorate – this is my fifth year in this place – the roads are still having the ‘Slow down’ signs on them, Mr McCracken. The roads have not been repaired. We go from 80 down to 60 down to 40 on country roads that are meant to be managed by this state government; they are not local roads.

But this does have its limits, planting botanical gardens in potholes, and we do need a proper study. To touch briefly on the terms of reference I propose, we should not just be talking about repairing our pockmarked roads. We need a proper re-examination of methods of road pavement, design, construction and maintenance in comparison to all other national and international jurisdictions.

A constituent just wrote to me about a recent trip to New Zealand. On their 3000-kilometre drive down the west coast of New Zealand they did not encounter one pothole or broken edge on any sealed road. If New Zealand can do it, surely Victoria can. They also paint, in the middle of the road, double lines in yellow. The great thing about that is you would avoid those dreadful wire rope barriers. The Safe System Road Infrastructure Program, which installs these wire rope barriers – a $1 billion program – was condemned by the Auditor-General due to an overoptimistic benefit analysis, inadequate program planning, incompetent record keeping and serious overspending. That was the Auditor-General. That is what he had to say about the one proposal, apart from ‘Slow down’ signs, that this government has had – spending money on wire rope barriers. In many cases they are a major problem because they are right on the edge of the road and if you stop and you need to change a tyre or you have somebody that needs to get out of the car or there are accidents, you are in real trouble. But that is the solution: put a wire rope barrier up or put up a ‘Slow down’ sign.

I am also concerned by the contracts we award and the construction and maintenance, hence the reference to the committee to examine that. This is such a simple proposal really – that the Economy and Infrastructure Committee examine this and look at how we could do it better. Surely in this day and age we want to do things better. We want to make sure taxpayers money is well spent. We need, as point (2)(c) says, ‘value for money achieved by the existing Victorian system of delivering road surface construction and maintenance’. The tendering process is vitally important, and so are the contract requirements, including technical specification of works and quality control and project assessment. There does not seem to be any of that.

A ‘longer term ongoing assessment of road surface quality’ – Mr McCracken and I know that out there in our electorate the roads are not built to last. Even the Princes Highway – highway 1 around Australia ‍– is a disgrace. It has not long been built, but it was falling apart almost as soon as we were allowed to drive on it. We need to work out why in the last decade or so our road building and maintenance have deteriorated. We used to be famous for our good roads, but the anecdotal evidence these days is: anybody who travels interstate to South Australia or New South Wales is blown away by the quality of their roads. Let us work out how they do it better or differently. Is it the type of construction that is not up to scratch? Is it the product we are using that is not good enough? Why can’t we work out what is going wrong with the building and maintenance of our roads?

I once asked one of the senior bureaucrats in this area what sort of guarantee there was for their roadworks. It appears there is none.

Joe McCracken: It is better on your toaster.

Bev McARTHUR: My toaster does have a better guarantee than roadworks in Victoria it seems. We have an obligation to the taxpayers of Victoria to make sure that our roads are built properly, built to last and maintained well. There is just no excuse for this. It serves this Parliament well I think to refer this sort of an issue to a committee that can call on expert witnesses from interstate, other jurisdictions and around the world. What would be wrong with finding out how others do it better? That would seem like the obvious thing to do, for this Parliament to do, and I know, having been on these committees, that you are in a position to call on expert witnesses to enlighten you on how you can do things better.

I urge the crossbench to understand what is happening outside the tram tracks of Melbourne. I am sure they have got some idea but perhaps not enough to ensure that we send this reference to the Economy and Infrastructure Committee and we make sure that we use every effort to examine how we can do this better.

I think the government should also want to know exactly how we could make sure our roads are safer and better managed. We have had all the expenditure on wire rope barriers, and we were told in the road toll inquiry that if we lowered the speed, everything would be okay. But as I have demonstrated, the road toll has increased, and here we are. I urge the crossbench and the government to support this motion.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:31): Today I rise to speak to motion 6. This motion by my colleague opposite, a member for Western Victoria, deals with the state of the roads in Victoria. I want to be the first to say this: I have had a lot to do with roads as a former state secretary of the Transport Workers Union – the Victorian–Tasmanian branch – and having spent 28 years as an official of the TWU, I know about roads. I will be opposing the opposition’s motion because I know it is unnecessary. The motion notes the implications of road surfaces for road safety. Well, I know a bit about road safety as well. Safety is always our number one priority, but we already have a committee looking at road safety and driver behaviour. My colleague opposite may recall that there was a similar motion earlier this year, which was referred to the Assembly’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee. That work is ongoing and will consider a range of issues, including how drivers are responding to their environment, such as road surfaces. Through the 2022–23 budget, the Andrews Labor government is making a $2.8 billion investment in road maintenance over 10 years, taking our total spend to $6.6 billion over the coming decade. This is a level of certainty over the long term, and we have not had that before. This is a level of commitment that only an Andrews Labor government will deliver.

Since the Andrews Labor government was, thankfully, elected in 2014, Victorian roads have been diligently and swiftly cared for, because we are a government that does what matters. In 2019 an audit was conducted of the quality of roads in Victoria. This budget has been incredibly generous towards road maintenance. We have increased funding for roads by $2.8 billion over the next 10 years. This funding will be given to flood-affected areas, which really need repairs, but also to other road networks that need a bit of a facelift. This funding boost means $6.6 billion will be invested into the management and maintenance of our roads over the next 10 years.

In my travels around regional Victoria, including the Bellarine, northern Victoria and in recent times the electorate of the member in this chamber’s Western Victoria Region, I have observed numerous places where there are bitumen sprayers, shoulder pavers, profilers and asphalt pavers – the very equipment we need to ensure that our roads are constructed to a good standard and to the modern standard that our great state deserves and needs. Grade construction upgrades, guardrails, safety upgrades and road surfacing and resurfacing or profiling – these are the things that the Labor government knows matter, and we are doing them.

Having spent half my life in regional communities, I have had an appreciation for regional roads, and as an organiser representing transport workers, who are the main users of these roads, I know how vital they are. That is why we are investing to get things done, because that is what the Andrews Labor government does. We invest in the lives and wellbeing of the Victorian people. We invest in infrastructure to ensure that everyone in this state can have the best possible quality of life we can give them.

Just earlier in May the government announced an increase to funding for road maintenance in flood-affected areas. It is true that considerable damage has been done to flood-affected regions, especially on the roads. This damage truly needs addressing. That is precisely why the government has chipped in millions of dollars to what will be a $7.8 million project on road maintenance and repair in parts of northern and western Victoria. This project is a repairs blitz, because we believe in working fast and effectively to deliver the change that is needed. This is not the first repair and maintenance blitz the government has delivered, and it will not be the last, because it is an effective way to ensure that our roads are always in tiptop condition.

We have also been hard at work upgrading roads, especially in regional Victoria and western Melbourne. For example, last year we invested $41 million to upgrade Derrimut Road and Hopkins Road and Boundary Road in Tarneit. This was part of a $125 million metropolitan roads upgrade program announced in the last budget. The metropolitan roads upgrade program was not just announced but delivered.

As for our regional roads, this Andrews Labor government has time and time again broken records for funding into Victoria’s regional roads. In 2018 Gippsland received the biggest maintenance blitz the state has ever seen. In 2020 we invested millions – $20 million to be precise – to improve roads across regional Victoria under the Safe Travel in Local Streets program, which is exactly why the Andrews Labor government and the Minister for Roads and Road Safety have introduced not only one but two rounds of grants available to community groups for programs to boost road safety this year and a large sum of funding for local government councils to improve the safety of local roads. The first round of grants was released between February and March, and the second is currently open.

$210 million of funding has also been delivered for council-controlled roads as part of the new Safe Local Roads and Streets program. Local roads can be the most dangerous to us, as we assume that we know the roads well enough and become distracted. This is why we need to support our councils in making sure that local council roads have every proverbial bell and whistle at their disposal. With over $200 million set aside for the improvement of the safety of local roads, we will hopefully be able to move towards a safer Victoria for motorists and pedestrians.

Thirty-three per cent of road deaths in Victoria occur on our local roads. That number is far too high, which is exactly why we are targeting local roads in our funding. These are the roads that our children cross when they are walking to school, the roads they learn to drive on and the roads they take when they first get their P-plates. They are the roads that take us home to see our families after a long day at work. These roads, like all roads, need every single safety measure we can give them. The Safe Local Roads and Streets program will ensure that councils are able to deliver important safety features like raised crossings, intersection upgrades, speed cushions, kerbing upgrades, pedestrian islands, safer speeds and roundabouts. It includes supporting councils in identifying where these features are required through the my road survey program, which is included under the $210 million of funding.

The $1.5 million community road safety grants program 2023–24 application period ran from 15 ‍February to 15 March. The community road safety grants program allowed for non-profit community organisations to go out into their community and identify local road safety issues. These organisations were then able to fund projects to improve the safety on their roads. The organisations able to apply for the grant included local community centres, community groups, government organisations, local government councils and schools. I am very pleased to see the City of Boroondara in my electorate of Southern Metro listed among the applicants. It is great to see the roads in Camberwell, Balwyn, Hawthorn and Kew fall under the council’s road safety application. I commend Boroondara council’s Mayor Sinfield for recognising the value and the importance of this grant program and jumping on the opportunity to take advantage of the fantastic programs the Andrews Labor government is offering for the betterment of the lives of people living in the Hawthorn, Ashwood and Kew areas.

The second grant program, which is available until 16 June, is the TAC road safety grant program 2023, formerly known as the TAC community road safety grants program. The grant program financially assists and supports community organisations in implementing road safety programs that can improve upon community safety. This particular round has been funded with $600,000 and will make great improvements to wellbeing and safety in our communities. I encourage everyone in this place to make sure that constituents and community groups in their electorates are aware of this fantastic grant program.

I commend the relevant ministers for their work in their respective fields, particularly Minister Horne, the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. It is undeniable that we have seen improvements under several road safety ministers, and it is undeniable that Victorian roads are in good hands. The Andrews Labor government is also looking very closely at the Victorian Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030. The road safety strategy outlines many ways to improve the safety of our roads that extend beyond road maintenance.

It is blatant that there is absolutely nothing that warrants the need for a committee inquiry into the so-called poor state of Victorian roads. As a member of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee, I will save us all the time and tell you what the Economy and Infrastructure Committee inquiry will find: it will find that the Andrews Labor government is doing what matters and delivering for Victorians. We are delivering for road safety, we are delivering for regional roads and we are delivering for the people, partly with our world-class level crossing removal. This road maintenance and road safety funding will likely make Victoria a leading body in safe roads, but to get there we have to put our heads down and get the work done, not sit around twiddling our thumbs and complaining.

Before I end, I want to give a shout-out to the stop-go traffic controllers, hardworking men and women who stand in the elements, which at times are less favourable than others, to ensure our safety whilst important construction, upgrades and more continue. To say this matter should be referred to a committee for further investigation would be, to my way of thinking, not the best use of the committee’s resources.

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (10:41): I am very happy to support the motion moved by Mrs McArthur in calling for an inquiry into roads in Victoria. Basically, it goes into two parts. The first part is to place on the record the poor state of roads in our state and to put on record that roads that are in poor condition do actually have consequences. The second part is to actually establish an inquiry into roads in Victoria.

To talk about the first two points of this motion is to recognise that Victoria does in fact have bad roads. I do not think any person, especially regional Victorians, could argue with this undeniable fact. If you go to the Department of Transport and Planning website there is an interactive map which indicates roads under DTP management. There are basically four classes: tollways, freeways, arterial roads which are named highways, and arterial roads. Of the Western Highway some parts are considered a freeway and some parts are considered arterial named highway. I have to say that over the years, particularly west of Ballarat, the highway has in some parts been in the poorest condition for a long, long time. Other roads, many locals know, are in mixed to poor states of condition. These designated highways, just in my particular area, include the Midland Highway, Sunraysia Highway, the Glenelg Highway and the Pyrenees Highway.

But there are major arterial roads that are impacted as well: Ballarat-Maryborough Road, Colac-Ballarat Road, Lismore-Scarsdale Road, Ballarat-Carngham Road, Beaufort-Lexton Road, Lexton-Talbot Road, Maryborough-St Arnaud Road, Ararat-Halls Gap Road, the Beaufort–Skipton road, Clunes-Creswick Road, Creswick-Newstead Road, Ballarat-Daylesford Road, Bacchus Marsh-Geelong Road and Geelong-Ballan Road, and that is just a small sample. I could keep going.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Joe McCRACKEN: Well, if you had driven on them, you would probably say something different. But there are many noted consequences of having poor roads. Nothing – and I mean absolutely nothing ‍– should be of a higher priority than safety. According to the TAC, 131 people have lost their lives on Victorian roads this year as at 28 May. That represents a 36.5 percentage increase on the figure for the full year last year.

Recently there was a shocking single-vehicle crash near Hamilton in my electorate, and I want to publicly put on the record my support for the first responders, victims’ families and the broader Hamilton community, who are grappling with this absolutely horrible situation. I stand with the Hamilton community, and I hope something like this never, ever happens again on our roads. Hopefully we can do everything we can to prevent further tragedy like this in the future.

The second part of this motion relates to the establishment of an inquiry. Of particular interest should be point (3)(b), which seeks to understand methods of construction, design, maintenance and surfacing and compare this to other jurisdictions. I can tell you anecdotally that patch-up jobs are not a long-term fix. I can tell you that slowing people down does not fix anything on roads. Closing down and creating detours is not a solution, and I have seen many instances of this on our country roads, particularly in my electorate.

One of the aspects which would be interesting if this inquiry is actually established, is to consider what happens in other countries. For example, in the United States, which has quite a diverse climate – sometimes snow, sometimes desert – in some states they use a concrete mix as the base of the road, which initially might be more expensive but it does tend to last longer and maintenance costs are lower. Canada has a cold climate where they have to contend with snow, yet they can produce decent roads that do not fall apart. I have often asked VicRoads, Regional Roads Victoria employees and now DTP why our roads fall apart or why maintenance cannot be done, and many times I have been told, ‘Well, you know, it’s a cold time of year. The weather’s not very good. It is weather dependent.’ If other countries such as the United States and Canada can do this work, and they have cold climates all year round, surely we could learn from them so that we can make our roads the best possible roads that they can be. We might be able to pick up practices and procedures that we could quite rightly put into practice here. Wouldn’t that be a good thing? It is not a bad thing; it is a good thing. We could learn. Hopefully that will help in delivering value for money for the taxpayer, which is part of point (3)(c) in this motion.

Quite often management of a road – back when I was responsible for at least managing a local roads network at a local government level – is in what is known as setting the intervention levels. Basically that means what triggers are in place in order for action to be taken, and intervention levels quite often will determine what treatment is required for a particular area of road. I think part of the work of the inquiry would be to look at what intervention levels are acceptable and how these are managed in other jurisdictions in order to get the best outcome for our road users.

In summary, I thank my colleague Mrs McArthur, who is from my electorate as well, from Western Victoria, for bringing this to the chamber, and I hope that we can use this as an opportunity to help improve roads in this state. The focus is on helping improve our roads. That is the focus. This inquiry is just that: it is an investigation. It is a fact-finding mission. It is an inquiry. We should never, ever be afraid of inquiring. We should not be afraid of looking into this, because ultimately we hope to improve road quality and driver experience and ultimately it will save lives, and that is something that is worth supporting. As many locals say, particularly in Western Victoria, ‘Don’t drive on the left-hand side of the road; drive on what’s left.’ Surely we can support the community so that they can safely get home, because that is the ultimate goal of this inquiry: to protect people’s lives.

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (10:48): It gives me great pleasure to rise in support of this wonderful motion, and I congratulate all my colleagues on speaking in favour of it. Back in 2017 it was noted in an audit that an increasing proportion of the state road network was in very poor condition and it represented a growing risk to public safety and increased road user costs. That audit also stated that the approach to road pavement maintenance is reactive, and I would say that that is a good description of the way that we deal with our roads in general: reactive. And that is why I commend this motion to the house. It is proactive. It is about long-term solutions.

In this year’s budget, page 310 in budget paper 3, the roads maintenance budget is cut by a further 25 per cent to just $441 million, and the Andrews government has been silent when it comes to a $1.3 billion cut to VicRoads in this year’s federal budget. I would like to also note that although it is great that the government has provided funding through grants to local governments for local roads, having been a local government councillor I can tell you that having to apply for money to fix things that it is your responsibility to fix when there are objective measures to tell you that you need that money is a waste of time and a bureaucratic nightmare. Also, as any councillor will tell you, the state government and VicRoads just refuse to collect the data that shows which roads will be a state responsibility and which will be local. Confusion reigns supreme in our system, and again the victims are our ordinary residents who just want their taxes to be used properly.

I commend this motion to the house. Congratulations. Well done on all your points, and I hope sincerely that it gets through.

Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (10:50): I would like to thank the member for Western Victoria for the opportunity to talk about roads maintenance, transport infrastructure and comparative investments today. I look forward to working across this chamber to tackle transport issues and how our investment is spent to secure a safe and sustainable transport network throughout this term, comprehensively and holistically.

Rural and regional road conditions and whether they are safe and deliver value for money are vitally important issues. I note that one issue that is affecting the ability of regional and rural councils in particular to maintain road infrastructure is the rate capping imposed by the state government. I note this type of constraint on local government is an issue that may be explored in an upcoming inquiry already before the Economy and Infrastructure Committee. We also know the impact heavy truck movements have on the maintenance of Victoria’s roads, and given the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including flooding due to the impacts of climate crisis, there is a need for further investment and upgrades to regional transport infrastructure in particular to ensure it is resilient to the impacts of the climate crisis.

The condition of regional and rural roads is absolutely an important issue. When communities miss out in this regard it does undermine the safety of communities and contributes to and compounds inequality. It would be remiss of a committee inquiring into transport and particularly assessing return on investment for public funds not to consider all essential elements relating to the sector, including exploration of transport-related carbon emissions and the benefits of freight movement alternatives, including rail. It has been a longstanding plank of Greens policy that all major industrial and infrastructure developments require a comprehensive and independent public health impact assessment. As one example only, we have regular reports of poorer health outcomes particularly for children who live in communities that experience air quality impacts from transport – the pollution and health impacts that flow from those.

We also know from transport usage data, and indeed from data about accidents and deaths, that infrastructure gaps need to be addressed to provide vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and those with accessibility requirements, with safe and convenient travel across Victoria’s road network. Investment in transport is one of the key responsibilities of government, and the Greens believe an inquiry on this topic should investigate a more comprehensive terms of reference. For this reason, we will not be supporting today’s motion.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (10:52): I am happy to stand here and talk to this motion today, although I do not support it for reasons that were outlined earlier, and I will come back to that.

Road safety does affect us all. Mr Berger in his contribution talked about his time and decades of work at the Transport Workers Union. Whether it is families using the roads, whether it is workers using the roads, whether it is our cities, whether it is our regional towns, whether it is our rural residents, it affects all of us, and there are different road conditions that users must face in that. We have a growing problem with pedestrians in our city areas not focusing on their surrounds and putting themselves in danger. We have bike users, whether that is in the city or on regional or rural roads –

Bev McArthur: Get rid of the bike paths.

Tom McINTOSH: Everyone is welcome to use the road, and everyone should be free to do so safely; it does not matter who the user is. I think what this government is doing is putting the investment in across all areas to ensure that all road users in Victoria can use the roads safely. Again whether that is people using them for business purposes or using them for personal purposes, they can get their loved ones, themselves or their freight to and from work and do so in a timely manner and a safe manner.

I will come soon to the investment that has been made out of this budget and the long-term approach that is being taken to the funding and the work that is being done on the roads to make sure that we are constantly improving them and constantly striving to have a great road network with that investment, with that research, with those smarts, with the workers that are working on building that network and maintaining that network, to ensure, as I have said, that all Victorians have access to it and can use it.

I will note, as I have spoken to before in here, the issues that country road users face. When we have people in cars going at high speeds, particularly young people, things can go terribly wrong. I have had mates myself who have gotten into a car and not come back, and that is the end – Max, 18 years old. The behaviour, the culture within the community, particularly amongst younger Victorians and particularly, as I was growing up, young men – we were not approaching vehicles in the way we should have been: people not wearing seatbelts, excessive speeding, alcohol use. Also I think in times of stress or poor mental health people were getting in cars and driving in ways they would not usually do. And I will mention Pete. Pete did the same thing, and we buried Pete afterwards. So I think there is a mixture of things that lead into people’s behaviours – cultures at the time – and I hope and I believe we are making big improvements in all those. I will come back to the roads specifically, but we are improving the vehicles which we are in. I think – and I have talked about this before as well – of the changes we have made to vehicles at times when we might have had certain members of industry or certain members of the public wanting to stop the improvements over time. I mean, there was a time when people were against seatbelts, which I just cannot imagine. We look now, and we would not even consider it. So the safety improvements that we have made all the way along for vehicles are a big part of road safety.

Mrs McArthur, I acknowledge that you are bringing this motion forward, but I do not support it. We already have a similar motion that has been referred to the Assembly’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, and I believe they are well equipped to look at the issue.

I want to come back to the budget I mentioned before. We are investing $2.8 billion in road maintenance, which is going to be over 10 years, and that is going to be additional to the $6.6 billion that is going to come over the next decade. In the next financial year alone we are going to invest $770 million in building, repairing and re-paving Victoria’s road assets. We acknowledge that we can always do better, and that we will strive to do. But with the new, long-term funding model we will deliver road maintenance in a manner improved by long-term planning and certainty. We are deeply invested in growing and maintaining Victoria’s road network and, as I have discussed before, making sure that we get Victorians home safer and making sure that we get them home sooner.

On Victoria’s road network the investment we have made of $30 billion is in almost 450 new road projects across the state – so, yes, we all agree maintenance is important, but in a growing state new infrastructure is vitally important as well. We have added 400 kilometres of new lanes to the state’s road network since the beginning of 2016. Since coming to government we have invested over $5.7 billion to maintain and strengthen our roadworks and, coming to the points raised over there, 17,500 kilometres of Victorian roads have been rebuilt or resurfaced to ensure their quality and safety. We acknowledge that the regional road network is a massive, massive portion of roads, and 15,300 out of that 17,500 have been regional roads and 2500 metropolitan. So you can see the work being done is very, very aware of and very focused on the huge tracts of regional roads that we have.

As I was saying, maintaining our network is a lot more than filling potholes. We are resurfacing roads. We are looking after that. But it is also about ensuring bridges, about ensuring our signalling network and major investments in the Eastern Victoria region – the South Gippsland Highway, the Princes Highway and major repairs that have occurred post flooding.

I am going to come to some of the work that has been done post flooding; in fact I will come to it now. $165 million of flood recovery works has seen potholes fixed and asphalting and repairing to landslips and damaged road surfaces. And I think this long-term plan is critically important, because as we have been saying on this side for decades now – and for some on the other side it has fallen on deaf ears – climate change is going to keep throwing severe impacts at us. When you put more heat into the atmosphere, you get bigger weather events. And with bigger weather events there are a whole lot of negatives that come out of that, and one of those is what happens to our roads. Although those opposite might have liked sitting and burying their heads for the last two, three, four decades – they not just slowed things down but tried to take us backwards with any possible chance they got – we have been getting on with dealing with those challenges that are coming and not only dealing with them by trying to futureproof against those changes occurring and trying to limit those changes and the severity of weather events but by dealing with the changes that are coming, and this long-term investment in our roads and road network is seeing that occur.

A member interjected.

Tom McINTOSH: Part of that funding, as has just been pointed out across the pulpit, and part of the approach we are taking to our road network is more smarts, like our Intelligent Pavement Assessment Vehicles capturing never-seen-before data on the condition of all 23,000 kilometres of the road network. We are investing in technology, including $340 million for Smarter Roads programs delivering intelligent traffic systems. I know intelligence might be lost on some opposite, but it is really, really important. It does not matter whether it is through our suburban road network or our regional network, we are there ensuring we are getting the best out of our networks. We have reformed our road maintenance contracts to deliver contemporary performance regimes with an increased focus on road users and safety outcomes.

This is definitely an issue in that we all strive for better roads. The government is making that investment. It has made the commitment, and that investment will be rolled out over 10 years, ensuring we are all clear where we are headed working on it.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (11:02): I am really pleased to rise this morning to add my support with my colleague Gaelle Broad to motion 6 standing in the name of Mrs McArthur, and I thank her for the comprehensive sections of this motion but also for her depth and her clarity on the need for this inquiry.

Just as my colleague Mr McCracken said, this is an investigation to look towards finding the best outcomes for our roads, for our road safety and, above all, for Victorians. What is there to see, not to let this go through? This is not anything other than it seems. It is important to look at the raft of particulars in the terms of reference.

I have just heard some members of the Labor Party talking about the importance of roads and saying that there is adequate road funding. I have heard some say we could do better, and we could do a lot better here in Victoria. In the past two years there has been a 45 per cent budget cut in road maintenance ‍– 45 per cent; $702.2 million down to $441.6 million. It is with incredible sadness that we read into Hansard the number of deaths that have occurred on all Victorian roads to date. Sadly, we saw the tragedy in the western part of our state on the weekend, and then following that, in Eastern Victoria Region around Darnum, another tragic, tragic death. This brings families to live life with a hole in their heart and live life with a limb of their family tree missing, and I know what that means, because my cousin died on a regional road. It is vital that we protect the safety of Victorians. You only have to drive around my Eastern Victoria Region to understand the depths of that. Indeed, finishing off on those tragedies: 58 per cent of the deaths that have occurred on Victorian roads this year have occurred on country roads – 58 per cent. That is 58 country families that are at a loss, as are their communities. It is not about just lowering the speed limit. That is not the solution. We see it time and time again. I understand lowering the speed limit when there are traffic works being undertaken, but you see the pothole filled and the ‘Reduced to 80 kilometres an hour’ sign is never removed. I can point to a number of different roads like this in my electorate.

What I would like to talk to is the importance of the road base and road maintenance. We know that part of this motion talks about the tender process. I have fantastic road construction companies in Eastern Victoria Region, who do an outstanding job, but they have to complete a road to tender. They are often frustrated by the fact that the quality of the substance that they put down on that road is not what they would like to use. We need to investigate the structure of road construction and how tender processes occur and the importance of getting it right so it is done well once and lasts for a long, long time.

For some of the roads that exist in my Eastern Victoria Region, a little while ago we did an investigation. We asked people to explain to us – the Nationals – about some of these roads. The Traralgon-Maffra Road was voted the fourth-worst road across the state. People came into my office and wrote to me saying that this is a deplorable road. It is often a huge thoroughfare for agricultural equipment and B-doubles transporting our great ag, but there are also many towns along the Traralgon-Maffra Road. Other roads included Sale-Toongabbie Road, Glengarry North Road, Brown Coal Mine Road in Yallourn North, Tyers-Walhalla Road and the Trafalgar–Thorpdale road. There is a slip between Trafalgar and Thorpdale that is constantly failing and is constantly putting those communities at risk. There are multiple unsafe sections along the Strzelecki Highway and the Fish Creek to Wilsons Prom road. If you go to the prom to look at kangaroos and our beautiful wildlife, you have to hop on that road to make your way there. There is also Cape Paterson Road, Wonthaggi Road, Rhyll-New Haven Road and Cardinia Road. Last but not least, there is the Great Alpine Road. I was up there recently. There has been some work done on Name Stone Point, and thank goodness, because it was quite a safety hazard. There were rocks falling. The engineering had not been done well. There is high rainfall. It needs to be done properly and well. That is the only road in and out of Omeo from Bairnsdale. I went, and again, there were potholes the size of small countries. These are unacceptable.

Regional Roads Victoria do the best they can with what they have got, and I thank Beth Liley, who is a fantastic girl from Yanakie. She grew up in the Yanakie area. She is doing an outstanding job with what she has got – the budget.

Let us talk about bridges. I heard the previous member’s contribution. He spoke about what they are doing with bridges. Well, the Andrews government removed the country roads and bridges program in 2015. The Andrews government then came out with the building stronger bridges program. The Premier came to Tyers to announce a new bridge to connect Traralgon to Tyers. The old bridge floods very regularly when we have floods in central Gippsland. The bridge was announced in 2015, and works started last year – seven years later. It is going to be finished – at a push – in 2023. If you think one bridge in Gippsland is something to hang your hat on, then you have got another think coming.

There are a couple of reports that we have seen. A report in March 2022 by Infrastructure Australia, Regional Strengths and Infrastructure Gaps,reported an urgent need to invest more in Victoria’s neglected and crumbling regional roads. I could go on and explain that in detail.

We do transport a considerable amount of agriculture – $2 billion from our Gippsland region goes into Melbourne and out into a variety of domestic and international places. We need our roads to be safe for that transport and safe for people to get their children to school, to sport and to work. We need that safety factor.

Another investigation that this inquiry could do so very well is to look at a very good board called the Australian Road Research Board. It is funded by multiple Australian states. It is funded by a range of road bodies as well. It does wonderful research, and it is looking at alternative solutions to road surfaces to make them last longer. We need that durability. They are looking at putting recycled plastics, glass, reclaimed asphalt, concrete and crumb rubber into the road infrastructure. They are looking at geopolymers, mining waste and bottom ash. I know Opal has an energy-from-waste program, and the bottom ash from that – the very stuff that cannot be used in the production of energy and heat – can be inertly inserted into the road base to make it more durable. These sorts of things are really important to investigate and support.

We have also seen the Committee for Gippsland. We met with them recently, Martin Cameron and I, and they have got a road infrastructure plan. None of this was in the government’s budget. There was no work for the Drouin arterial road network, no preplanning or business case for the Traralgon bypass and no work funded for the Leongatha heavy vehicle bypass stage 2. We call that, down there, kamikaze corner.

There is a huge opportunity to investigate the important work that bodies are doing to insert more durable road base, the way roads are constructed and the importance of increased safety so that our families can get home safely and our product can get to market and we will not see this tragic number of 134 people to date increase any more. We can get people where they need to go more safely.

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (11:12): I thank Mrs McArthur for bringing this matter before the house. Are roads a big issue for regional and rural Victorians? Absolutely. Of course they are, as they are for a lot of my constituents living in and around the Melbourne growth corridors where thousands and thousands of vehicles are travelling on, at best, domestic-grade roads to get in and out of town. Unfortunately we were only approached yesterday about this referral and had no opportunity to seek to discuss or amend the terms. I do not want to appear to be ungrateful, Mrs McArthur, but I think this is a missed opportunity. Had there been the opportunity for discussion, our position might be different, but as presented this referral appears not so much to be a genuine inquiry as a four-by-two to belt the government. Look, that might be fun, but it is perhaps not the best use of taxpayer money.

Looking at the terms of reference, it strikes me as a lost opportunity. In fact I suspect much of the terms of reference could easily be answered by ChatGPT. Patterns of investment in roads, the standards required for road construction and tendering, and contract requirements are all largely within the public domain. These questions have also been extensively canvassed in multiple parliamentary inquiries in other states and the federal parliament, as well as in this Parliament.

Could the roads be better if we spend more money on them? Of course they could be. But where will that money come from, and what would be cut to pay for it? These are not issues that are considered within the terms of reference. Are there other parties that can and should contribute more, like the road heavy transport industry? This is not considered. Are there ways to reduce road usage, such as by improving rail freight services or public transport? This is not considered. What do more frequent extreme weather and climate change mean for the roads and future road construction and maintenance? That is not considered. Because of these deficiencies, we will not be supporting the referral, but we would welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue in the future with Mrs McArthur should she wish.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (11:15): I am very pleased to rise to speak on Mrs McArthur’s motion seeking a referral to the Economy and Infrastructure Committee on road safety here in Victoria. There have obviously been some very impassioned contributions across the chamber, notably from Mrs McArthur but also from Ms Bath, reflecting on certainly some of the tragedies that we have seen over the weekend and recently on Victoria’s roads. They are indeed deeply disturbing, and I think any of us who have been listening to the interviews with the families, particularly the families of the young men who died in Hamilton on the weekend, can only empathise with the absolute horror and trauma they are going through. But I think it would be a mistake now to seek to link these tragedies expressly, and we should take care in drawing the links between these particular tragedies and any sort of causality with road maintenance or road safety. I think we need to be very, very careful in expressing our sympathies but then extending that and drawing conclusions in advance of appropriate investigations. That really is for others to determine, not us here in this place.

It is an important issue. Road safety in Victoria is an important issue, and it is something that the government takes very seriously. This is of course evidenced by the referral that the other place has made to its Economy and Infrastructure Committee to look at road safety behaviours and their impacts on vulnerable road users. That inquiry in the other place is underway and hopefully will give the Parliament as a whole – and the government should it choose to consider it – some evidence of how to improve aspects of road safety here in Victoria and also some policy recommendations about the courses of action that the government can take to improve safety on Victorian roads. I think it is entirely appropriate that we allow that inquiry and encourage members of our community to support that inquiry with their evidence about what is happening in their communities and ways that we can look to support safety on our roads, particularly looking at road safety behaviours. So that is an important inquiry that is already underway that other members of this Parliament are undertaking, and I think that demonstrates the commitment of the Parliament as a whole to this important issue.

Obviously in examining how we consider issues around the maintenance of our roads rather than the safety of our roads, the government and government members absolutely understand that there are a range of challenges in ensuring that roads are constructed and kept in the best possible condition, because we know that there are multiple challenges across our road network. We need to make sure that we do the tasks of construction and repair and maintenance in an appropriate way that takes into account the enormous diversity of Victoria in its geography, in its climate and in its geology but also in the usage and the impact that that usage in various parts of the state has on roads and road conditions.

It is undeniable that Victoria is experiencing more extreme climatic events. We have experienced more flooding in the past two to three years than we have seen in the past two decades, and as a member of the Environment and Planning Committee for its inquiry into the October 2022 flooding event, I have been made very well aware from meteorology of just the impact and the uniqueness of that flooding event last year. It put enormous strain on the road network. The volume of water that we have seen across Victoria in the last couple of years but particularly last year has undoubtedly had a significant effect on all aspects of our community infrastructure, and our road infrastructure is no exception to that. We know that these sorts of climatic events are going to occur more frequently, so we do need to make sure that we strengthen our road network and make it more resilient.

We do need to start doing things differently, and the government has acknowledged that reality. That is why we have taken action to change the way we look at road funding and road maintenance, to bring in a more secure and long-term model for road maintenance but also, in the practice of doing road maintenance, undertake it in a way that recognises the different climatic conditions in different parts of Victoria, the different soil composition types, the different geology and the different road-use arrangements that impact on what is required to make our roads safer. So we need a new and better approach in terms of how we think about road maintenance, and the government is taking steps to do that by examining and taking a considerable interest in the different requirements that different elements of Victoria’s road network require but also by introducing and securing longer term maintenance funding arrangements. That is why the government is introducing a multi-year funding approach for road maintenance and strengthening works, because we know that it is not something that just has to be done once. That is what we need to make sure of – that the sorts of programs of investment that are undertaken can be done with security.

In addition to always trying to improve the way we go about the business of keeping our roads maintained, the government has made a significant investment. It has put money behind this approach. The 2022–23 budget showed that we were investing $2.8 billion in road maintenance over 10 years, taking our total spend to $6.6 billion over that decade. That, I think, demonstrates the extent of investment, in terms of quantum, and the length of funding certainty that we make in the roads here in Victoria. In the next financial year alone we will be investing $770 million in rebuilding, repairing and repaving Victoria’s road assets, which is of course significantly more than it was when we came to government. We think that the government’s investment absolutely speaks for itself.

We are investing almost $30 billion in about 450 new road projects across the state. We have added more than 400 kilometres of new lanes to the state’s road network since the beginning of 2016, and since coming to government we have invested $5.7 billion to strengthen our road network. This has meant that thousands of kilometres of Victorian roads have been rebuilt and resurfaced to ensure their quality and safety both in the regions and in the metropolitan area. We put in significant amounts of money and resources following the floods last year to ensure that the roads, particularly those affected by the floods, are looked after.

I think it was Mrs McArthur who issued a get outside the tram tracks challenge, which is very important. What goes on inside the tram tracks is also very important, Mrs McArthur, particularly on our roads. I drove to Kerang and back on Friday and Saturday and encountered on that trip up the Loddon Valley Highway quite a few road projects in fact. What we saw on the road at the times that I was driving, in the late evening, was the road crews not entirely as active as they otherwise would have been, but they were there. They were on the job doing what they could do as part of our road maintenance program. I will be out travelling to Sale in a couple of weeks and hope to see more activity in terms of road maintenance across Victoria, actually demonstrating not only this government’s commitment to road maintenance but our delivery of road maintenance projects across this state.

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (11:25): I am rising to support Mrs McArthur’s motion to send a referral to the Economy and Infrastructure Committee for an inquiry into the poor state of our Victorian roads. In Northern Victoria alone the current road toll is more than double that of last year, and we are not even halfway through the year. In Greater Shepparton we are at eight fatalities already; six were recorded for the whole of last year. The Moira shire has had nine fatalities this year so far; last year overall there were only six. These are just two of the shires in my Northern Victoria region.

On Sunday night I was driving through an earthquake and I did not even notice; I simply assumed my rough ride was due to the state of our roads. To have become so accustomed to the bumpy, jarring and swaying surfaces of our roads that I could not even feel the most powerful earthquake in Melbourne for 120 years is concerning.

The condition of our roads in regional Victoria is costing locals thousands of dollars in repairs to their vehicles and businesses. It is costing them hours of downtime waiting for said repairs and temporary transport. These individuals and businesses are out of pocket up to $1400 each time their vehicles are damaged before they can be compensated. This is disgraceful since we all pay our registration and rates to ensure that our roads are safe and reliable to use.

Joe McCracken: They all go to the city.

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL: Exactly. Why do our cars have to be roadworthy when our roads are not carworthy?

I am going to put my sassy pants on here and go off topic. The government here has just stated that climate change is to blame. On climate change – weather, I call it – if our roads cannot be weatherproof, then I think a severe investigation is needed to ensure that we can at least build our roads to be weatherproof.

I am keeping it really nice and short because I would like my colleague Ms Lovell to get up and support this motion also.

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (11:27): I am very pleased to stand and speak in support of this motion for a parliamentary inquiry to consider and report on the state of Victoria’s roads, and I thank Ms Tyrrell and colleagues in this chamber for their contributions. I also particularly want to thank Bev McArthur, a member for Western Victoria Region, for her work on the terms of reference for this inquiry, as the issues raised apply to the Northern Victoria Region, and I am sure that Wendy Lovell will agree with that.

This motion asks the Economy and Infrastructure Committee to examine the budget allocation for road construction and repairs in Victoria; the methods and standards of design, construction and maintenance of road pavement and surfacing; and how to achieve value for money in the delivery of road surface construction and maintenance through the tender process, contract requirements and quality control. This motion recognises the poor state of Victoria’s roads, especially in rural and regional areas.

The electorate of Northern Victoria covers 100,000 square kilometres, and having driven across large parts of the state, I can tell you that our road network is falling apart. Victoria’s road network is vital because it connects our state. Maintaining a safe and smooth road network is a key responsibility of state government, but what we have seen under this government, which has been in for far too long, is the continuing neglect of a core responsibility. Many regional and rural roads are falling apart, particularly in flood-affected areas. The government’s own transport department has found significantly accelerated deterioration across the network after a study of 8400 kilometres of roads. The Victorian Transport Association estimates that $1 billion is needed for post-flood reconstruction. The Municipal Association of Victoria has estimated that the councils can maintain just 65 per cent of their roads.

Before the state election the coalition committed to investing $10 billion over 10 years in road maintenance funding to provide long-term contracts, promote innovation and provide contractors with certainty to invest in better equipment. But under the Labor government, at a time when we should be prioritising road maintenance funding, the state budget saw a further cut in funding, down 45 per cent on what it was in 2020. We are seeing large potholes that come up without warning, so you can either hit them or dodge them – both are risky options. We rely on fresh produce coming from the regions to our supermarket and shop shelves, but our roads are not built to withstand the weight of large transport vehicles. Victorians deserve more than gravel roads full of potholes and with edges that are crumbling. I know firsthand the cost of maintaining a car that has to travel on these roads and the impact that that has. We need a smooth, reliable and safe road network that is properly maintained.

I remember a main road not far from Bendigo that had to be widened. It was a very long, drawn-out process seeking the approvals required. The road was reduced to a single lane as the works were undertaken, and it took months. The works were done in patches and they were very uneven; it ended up looking like a patchwork quilt. But only after a very short time the road surface started crumbling; you could see the dirt. The road was closed again and it was redone several times. In recent months my colleague Danny O’Brien came to look at some of the roads in our region. There were patches near Dingee where the road had been repaired. As I walked on the repairs, you could see my shoe print in the tar, and it was not a very hot day at all.

But at the risk of sounding like a whinger, I do want to acknowledge the work that our road maintenance teams do. A constituent, Larry Norman from Warburton, wrote to me as the finishing touches were being done to the Woods Point Road in Warburton. He asked me to thank VicRoads in Parliament for completing the work on time on behalf of the people in the area. The road is a key access point for the town, and in many regional towns the roads are the only way to get in and out. In areas prone to bushfires, maintaining a reliable and safe road network is critical.

I also think of the landslip that cut off access to Falls Creek along the Bogong High Plains Road. The landslip was about 70 metres high and 100 metres wide. If you have seen the images, it is incredible. I know that my colleague Tim McCurdy, the member for Ovens Valley, advocated strongly on behalf of the community to ensure that the road was cleared as soon as possible and sought further support for the businesses impacted. Towns like Falls Creek and the surrounding towns like Mount Beauty rely on tourism, and maintaining road access is crucial.

It was great to see one lane reopened in April, and I want to acknowledge the work of Major Road Projects Victoria and those who worked hard to reopen the road again, including those that cleared the debris, the engineers, the construction team and traffic management – thank you. I know that this project presented significant challenges, including rain, fog, tremors, further slips and a very windy road to get there to do the work each day. But for the community and for the businesses that have experienced lost summer trade over the past three years, I say thank you. It is important that we continue to visit these areas and areas impacted by the floods to help them recover. Victoria’s road networks are vital for business and to connect family and friends.

Very sadly, more than 130 people have died on our roads since the start of this year, compared to 96 at the same time last year. Since last Friday, 10 people have died in crashes on Victoria’s roads, and our hearts go out to their families and friends. I know as a parent of children, an L-plater and a P-plater, how conscious I am of road safety. We should all have that in mind as we travel. We need to ensure that our road networks are maintained to a high standard. This parliamentary inquiry into the state of Victoria’s roads is long overdue, and I encourage all members of this house to support it.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:34): I rise with something of a sense of deja vu to speak on this motion by Mrs McArthur. I am reminded of my contribution early in March this year when we discussed a similar matter. I do not think I will have my contribution today interrupted by a quorum motion by Mr McGowan. I am very sorry to see that he is not in the room, but I hope he will be here shortly. There are several differences between the motion previously put forward and this one. I suggested during my contribution to that motion that it would be better suited for the Economy and Infrastructure Committee of our Council rather than a joint committee. I am also heartened to see that, unlike perhaps some in this chamber, Mrs McArthur clearly understands the standing orders, specifically standing order 7.06, which says that the same question cannot be put twice. This is a different question. I respect you for that, Mrs McArthur, unlike those who have sought to defend a curious referral to one of our committees.

But I would like to take a moment to draw to the house’s attention a difference from the previous motion – unfortunately not a happy contrast – and its terms of reference is the specific reference to road trauma and safety on the roads and related matters. That was one of the primary concerns listed in the previous proposed inquiry, and I am disappointed to see that this is not in today’s motion. It set the focus of that motion that the inquiry was to be about addressing the road toll, and it would have been good to have seen that today. I did admire the aim of that inquiry, which was squarely focused on reducing road trauma, but I am dismayed to see that that is no longer the focus. Value for money, economic impact and contracts now have equal standing with safety and terms of reference. These are all important points, but I think we should all agree that safety is the most important thing to discuss.

Bev McArthur: We did that inquiry. We’ve done it. You weren’t here.

Michael GALEA: I will take you up on that interjection, Mrs McArthur. I know that my colleague Mr Erdogan did a power of work on that inquiry. I do ask the question: if we have already done the inquiry, why are we doing it again?

Something has been lost here. Whilst we can debate the various technicalities, what we can all agree on is that this is a very serious and significant issue. Far too many people are dying on our roads. One death is too many. At the end of each and every one of those deaths is a colleague, a friend, a family member whose life is irreparably changed by our road toll. We may never get our road toll down to zero, but we must absolutely try. There are numerous strategies and other projects in place to address this problem. I will not go into detail on every one of them, as I did in my speech in March, but every year about 6000 people in this state end up in hospital with serious, traumatic, road-related injuries, which has a devastating impact on their lives and those of their families.

When I spoke on a similar motion earlier this year I mentioned that 67 people had died on the roads in the state at that time. Very sadly, I was corrected immediately after my speech and informed that it was by that point 68. Today it is 134, an increase of 39.6 per cent – almost 40 per cent – on this time last year. Last year, as a total, 241 people died, which was eight more than in 2021. Forty-four of those were pedestrians – again, vulnerable road users. Pedestrians are particularly at risk. They do not have airbags or seatbelts and they are fully exposed to traffic. It might not always be the case that they should be off the roads. In many cases, people walking on pavements or footpaths or safely crossing the road might still be at risk through no fault of their own. As with all road trauma-related injuries and deaths, none of these are acceptable.

Road trauma was the focus of the previous motion. I understand that this motion does go into greater detail on roads funding. I do note, and I will briefly refer to the contributions of my colleagues, the investment that has already taken place. I will take up the commentary from Mrs Tyrrell. We are not saying that climate change is the only reason why the roads are bad or why there is a road toll, far from it. But it is undeniable that the floods that we have seen in the past few years have, by Victorian standards, been nothing like what we have seen before, and that has had a massive effect on our road network. As a result we have invested $2.8 billion in road maintenance and renewal, which is taking our total spend over the coming decade to $6.6 billion, to address these specific issues, especially flood-related works – flood recovery works – which also includes road safety as well as other projects to increase the productivity and safety of our road network. A further $674 million is being provided to upgrade critical roads and intersections as part of a road blitz plan to improve network efficiency. There is also funding directed to vital regional roads, including the Western Highway, the Hume Freeway, the Murray Valley Highway, the Hamilton Highway and the South Gippsland Highway. The roads targeted under the maintenance blitz were selected based on expert inspections and community feedback, ensuring that the works delivered are where local drivers need them the most.

There is much more I could say on this topic, but with an eye on the time as well I will also briefly touch on our road safety measures. Obviously whilst funding for maintenance is very important, improvements to those rural, regional and metropolitan roads should also be focused on reducing damage caused to vehicles, reducing fatalities, reducing injuries and improving overall road user safety, and in practical terms that also means upgraded infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, encouraging the use of vehicle safety technology, enforcement targeting high-risk behaviours, education campaigns and investing in road user behaviour research.

So whilst I will not be supporting this motion today, I reiterate my support for a continued and bipartisan focus on addressing road trauma, reducing the road toll and improving the overall safety on our roads. The Andrews Labor government has committed considerable funding towards improving road safety already and addressing road maintenance and improvement requirements across metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria, inside and outside of the tram tracks. The government has not neglected its responsibility to set vital road policies and pass critical legislative reforms to improve our road network and our road laws, and I note the changes to the road laws this year as well, bringing our road safety laws into the modern era. We must work constructively to deliver the increased safety our roads need and to ensure that our road infrastructure meets the needs of communities across the state and for road users of all kinds: pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, commercial and passenger vehicles and others as well.

The PRESIDENT: The time for debate has expired, so I call Mrs McArthur for her summing-up.

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (11:42): I thank everybody for their contributions. It is incredibly disappointing that the government, the cannabis party and the Greens are not supporting this motion. I cannot understand how you would not want to ensure that we look into the ways we do road building better. The cannabis party were concerned they did not have any notice about the motion. It has been on the agenda since December, when they were sworn in. They just need to read the paraphernalia we get every day, and they would be right.

Ms Tyrrell referred to the earthquake that occurred, but it is an earthquake driving on a country road every day. She is absolutely right. You hit a pothole; it is as if the earth has opened up. Ms Broad referred to the roads that are falling apart. They are absolutely falling apart.

Mr Galea, you have referred to the bipartisan approach that we could have – now, this was a golden opportunity for you to embark on a bipartisan gesture of goodwill so that we look at how we could do roads better for the safety of all Victorians, for the road users, for the producers – we drive your food to the city, you know. We need to have better roads. You people here eating tofu and everything else ‍– you need to have a good truck that can drive on a road and not get wrecked every day.

Mr Batchelor referred to all the reasons why an inquiry is actually critical. He gave us all the reasons that we need to look at how we could do roads better, but for the life of me I cannot understand why ‍– are you afraid over there? Are you afraid of what we might find out? We might find some solutions that you have not actually cottoned on to for how we could do roads better. What would be wrong with that?

Mr McCracken referred to road after road in Western Victoria that is just shameful. Ms Ermacora over there knows these roads very well, and I know she has not had a chance to speak, but if she did, she would also be able to detail the appalling state of roads in her area, which is our area as well. But she did not have that opportunity, and I am sure – but you could have briefed them about how bad it is, Ms Ermacora, and got them on board.

Thank you to Ms Bath, who actually detailed what is wrong in Eastern Victoria. I mean, seriously, down there you have ended the timber industry, you have shut that down, and now you cannot even fix the roads in Eastern Victoria. This is just shameful.

Ms Purcell told me – I am sure I can release this confidence – that the biggest issue raised with her in her electorate of Northern Victoria is roads. Hallelujah, it is roads! But where is she? I understand she is going to vote against the motion because she thinks the Economy and Infrastructure Committee is a bit overburdened with her self-referenced motion on gassing pigs. What is more important? Quite frankly, it would be more important to look at how we could revolutionise the way we build roads in Victoria. That would be a breakthrough of monumental proportions. Gassing pigs might be important, but I do think a motion from the chamber should have gone to the Economy and Infrastructure Committee. Saying she has a self-referenced motion she is worried needs to take priority is just not good enough.

I thank Ms Deeming also. As a former councillor she is well aware of how hopeless the situation is. Mr McCracken and I have had the glorious benefit of being councillors in past lives, and I know just how hopeless it is trying to get a grant out of the government to fix up a road if you are in local government. I mean, you have got to go through –

Joe McCracken: A forest of trees – paperwork.

Bev McARTHUR: a forest of paperwork. Quite right, Mr McCracken. We are pulling down the trees to actually produce the ability to get a grant to fix a road in local government.

I am very disappointed that the government has not seen fit to support this motion. It is something that is vitally important to those of us outside the tram tracks. I hope that we can do something better in the future in a bipartisan way, Mr Galea.

Council divided on motion:

Ayes (16): Matthew Bach, Melina Bath, Jeff Bourman, Gaelle Broad, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Moira Deeming, Ann-Marie Hermans, David Limbrick, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Nicholas McGowan, Adem Somyurek, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell

Noes (20): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Katherine Copsey, Jacinta Ermacora, David Ettershank, Michael Galea, Shaun Leane, Sarah Mansfield, Tom McIntosh, Rachel Payne, Aiv Puglielli, Georgie Purcell, Samantha Ratnam, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Jaclyn Symes, Lee Tarlamis, Gayle Tierney, Sheena Watt

Motion negatived.