Tuesday, 28 November 2023

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:17): (622) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and it concerns the alarming abandonment of the Shepparton bypass project by the state and federal Labor governments. The action that I seek is for the minister to prioritise the Shepparton bypass project by committing the state portion of funding for the first stage of the project and also for the minister to advocate for the federal government to commit the full share of federal funding required to build stage 1 of the project.

The Albanese Labor government’s recent announcement that they are abandoning the commitment of $208 million in funding which the former Liberal government put in place is a massive slap in the face for the Greater Shepparton community, which has advocated for the bypass for the past three decades. The Shepparton bypass has clearly been the number one priority for the Shepparton community for many years now, so to see progress halted by the federal Labor government’s infrastructure review was heartbreaking to the community. There are many reasons why the Shepparton community has advocated so passionately for this project, including to improve safety in the central business districts of both Mooroopna and Shepparton, where B-doubles and other trucks create an unnecessary hazard for local shoppers and domestic vehicles, and to create a second river crossing of the Goulburn River to ensure connectivity between the west and east of our community when the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway is closed.

Never before was the need for this second river crossing so evident as during the October 2022 floods, when residents in communities on the west side of the river, including in Mooroopna and Tatura, were cut off from Shepparton with no access to the hospital or other vital services. With the Albanese government making cuts to infrastructure projects based on not demonstrating merit or lacking national strategic rationale, cutting federal funding for this project seems to be a complete and utter failure by the Albanese government. Creating a second river crossing between Wanganui Road in Shepparton and the Midland Highway in Mooroopna would both reduce freight traffic in the central business districts of Shepparton and Mooroopna and ensure that communities on the western side of the river have access to the fundamental services, including a hospital. It would also ensure that the major east–west freight corridor of the Midland Highway will remain accessible when the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway is closed. The causeway currently carries more than 30,000 vehicles daily, and this is only set to increase with the state’s growing population.

It makes no sense for a major regional city the size of Shepparton to be without a bypass, especially when you consider that more than 25 per cent of Victoria’s trucks are registered in the Goulburn Valley. I urge the minister to commit state funding to the project and to work with the federal government to ensure the bypass is completed.