It is a real pleasure to follow the member for South-West Coast to rise and speak on the Roads and Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. It is an absolute pleasure to talk about the South-West Coast, because, as someone who does follow a little bit of social media, I saw a kind of flurry of events, with four fabulous Labor ministers spending a bit of time down in the South-West Coast recently. The Minister for Roads and Road Safety was actually down there having lots of conversations with residents in and around I think it was the Warrnambool area. The Minister for Agriculture was down there talking to farmers. Who would have thought? That is right. Also we had the Minister for Employment and Minister for Prevention of Family Violence down there I believe opening an Orange Door – a very, very important Labor government initiative for people in regional Victoria. And just because we have got the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events sitting at the table there, I will give him a special mention. He also was down there at South-West Coast, and I believe he was announcing a $50,000 grant that will go towards Warrnambool Art Gallery.
[Interjection]
Four ministers. But what I liked most was that the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, who is at the table, was lucky enough to try something which I think is kind of fabulous, which was abalone – something fantastic. So if you are ever down in that part of Victoria, I am sure the minister and I would highly recommend checking out some abalone and talking to our abalone farmers about the incredible work that they do.
I do also want to put on the record that Labor knows the challenges ahead when it comes to roads. We have talked about them time and time again in this place in question time. Indeed, member for South-West Coast, if you had bothered to watch budget estimates, you would have seen them talk about it for hours as they were interrogated as to how much is being spent where and when. That is why Labor here has committed $6.6 billion over the next 10 years so we can plan long term – planning long term is important – and we can get our roads into the best state that they can be. That includes $964 million in this year alone. And I like to compare, right. Let us do a little comparison, member for South-West Coast. We will compare that with the $493 million of those opposite – just an average, not a total indeed. We will compare the pair, as my kids would say.
As part of my contribution, I do want to give a really big shout-out to our wonderful truck drivers, who do such an incredible job in this state. We really noticed it during COVID – the incredible job they did to ensure that all of the things that we need to keep us well fed, clothed and all of that kind of stuff during COVID was delivered to our home. That was our truck drivers, who have never been more important.
In the debate on this bill we have talked a lot about trucks, particularly in the inner west. We have a little game in my family; I have not really talked about this, but I know the member for Footscray and the member for Williamstown will have a chuckle because I am sure their kids have the same game. The game is: when we stop at the lights on Melbourne Road, let us count how many big trucks there are before the light goes green and we head off to one of their favourite ice cream shops in Yarraville. We have gotten to 42, I think it was, from memory, trucks that we counted travelling along Melbourne Road and down Francis Street: 42 – that is extraordinary – in a couple of minutes being stopped at a red light.
It is amazing as a westie to be able to stand up and speak on the Roads and Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2024, and I have to absolutely commend the member for Footscray and the member for Williamstown for their tireless advocacy in trying to get trucks off local streets in local neighbourhoods in the inner west. It has not been an easy job, and I would say it has not been a cheap job, because it has been our government’s investment and construction of our West Gate Tunnel Project that has at the end of the day made that possible, and that is opening in 2025. Yes, she has been a big project to deliver. We have had our challenges. As someone who has lived and breathed that project – I am trying to count back now – I feel like it has been seven years of construction pain and all of this other stuff, with daily conversations about what is happening where and traffic diversions. But in the last 12 months we have seen it working. Lanes are opening. She is freeing up, she is being built, she is almost done.
Most recently we have seen that the veloway, the incredible cycling veloway, is 50 per cent finished. The great big green thing hanging off the underbelly of the West Gate Tunnel is a veloway. I always think it is a fancy word for a cycling path, but that is me. She is bloody beautiful, and that is for westies. Let me just say this in the chamber, to my own colleagues here: it is not just for inner westies. Outer westies love riding bikes. I have met people living in Truganina and Williams Landing and, by God, Werribee who ride bikes to the city. They have invited me; I have said I will check my diary. It seems like a pretty big ride for a girl that does not ride a bike very often. They ride their bikes. It is for people across Melbourne’s west.
When I am out and about in the electorate and I am talking to locals about the projects that matter to them most, we talk about roads almost on a daily basis. It was one of the reasons why we invested $1.8 billion as part of the western roads package. When I was the member for Tarneit five of those roads were inside my electorate. They are now open. It is unbelievable watching the free-flowing traffic in, around and on those roads, absolutely amazing – roads like Leakes and Palmers, which used to be banked up all the way to the freeway. These were major congestion belts along the arterial blood lines of our local community. They are now our major thoroughfares that run through our electorate. Even now, three years after they were completed – can you believe it has been three years – these upgraded roads are getting folks home quicker and easier and with much, much less stress.
But we know there is so much more to do. We cannot stop there. The conversations I have with locals turn very quickly to the freeway and how we are trying to ease traffic there. I say this like a chant to my husband: for folks who have to travel day in and day out over the West Gate to get to work, and there are a hell of a lot of westies, and, I do say, interlopers from Geelong, that do – and I notice the member for Geelong is not here, but including her on particular days, clogging up our freeway and our bridge – it will be our West Gate Tunnel that revolutionises the way in which we travel in and around our city. It is going to free up the traffic that is holding us back from getting where we need to go sooner rather than later but also getting us home sooner so we can do the things that we like with the people that we love most.
We know that the health stats of people in the western suburbs, particularly the outer west, are just a bit worse than the rest of Victoria. A lot of that has to do with us spending so much time in our cars, and the paper has reported for many, many, many years the amount of time that folks in the outer west spend in their cars. The West Gate Tunnel is about changing that.
Despite all of the challenges that we have faced with that project, like I said – we have lived through it, and I am pretty sure it is at about that seven-year mark – I can tell you, whether you are on this side of the house or that side of the house, westies cannot wait till that project opens. We will be counting down the days. We will be some of the first people to go through it. When we have the opportunity to walk across it or walk over it, we will be there in our numbers. That tunnel, that project, that incredible overpass, the highway with the incredible view of the city as part of that tunnel – that is for us. That is to make our lives better. Whether we are talking about spending less time in our cars and more time with our kids or having better health stats and health outcomes, that tunnel is our project, and we cannot wait to see it open in 2025. This is a great bill, and I commend it to the house.
