Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Donnybrook Road

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:58): (1488) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Planning. The action that I seek is for the minister to commit to distributing growth area infrastructure contribution (GAIC) funds for the purpose of urgently upgrading Donnybrook Road.

The Minister for Planning announced in December that applications were open for a new round of grants that would distribute another $150 million from the Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution Fund for transport projects. This fund collects money from property developers and designated growth areas and uses that money to build the transport infrastructure that growing areas need, like roads, train stations, bus services, walking paths et cetera. At least that is what it is supposed to do, but often the money is used for the Labor government’s pet projects while rapidly growing areas like Donnybrook go for years without having major roads upgraded.

Donnybrook Road is a single-lane rural track that connects new booming suburbs to the Hume Freeway. Massive amounts of traffic funnel along the road every morning and evening, trying to get onto or off the freeway. The congestion is so bad that vehicles exiting the Hume Freeway to get onto Donnybrook Road often back up all the way onto the freeway, causing a major risk of collision. Donnybrook Road is a perfect example of failed Labor planning policy that puts in new houses without regard for infrastructure and tries to catch up later, after traffic has already become chaotic.

New housing estates were built around the train station so that commuters could catch the train to the city instead of driving, but there is no footpath along the road and no bicycle lane, so it is impossible for residents of the new estates to safely walk or bike to the train station. Until recently there was also no bus going from the housing estates to the train station. Now a new bus route has been announced, but there are no bus service bays on Donnybrook Road, so the bus will block the road every time it stops, making traffic congestion even worse. The road is a complete and utter planning failure by the state Labor government, which is happy to collect growth area contributions from developers and very happy to collect taxes from property buyers but will not invest that money on the infrastructure necessary to make this area livable for its long-suffering residents.

For the City of Whittlesea, developers have contributed $111 million, but only $75 million has been committed to projects. Funds for the Wyndham, Casey and Mitchell shires are undercommitted by 11 per cent, 13 per cent and 11 per cent respectively, but funds for the City of Whittlesea are undercommitted by 32 per cent. That developer contribution money is sitting in the state government’s bank account, no doubt being held back to prop up Labor’s ailing bottom line. In the meantime Donnybrook Road desperately needs to be upgraded, but the Allan Labor government seems to have no plan to fund this crucial project. With the recent announcement of a new round of grants from the GAIC fund, the Victorian government must finally fix this mess.