Wednesday, 22 March 2023

McKoy Street–Hume Freeway, Wodonga

Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (19:09): (115) I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. The action I seek is for the minister to provide full details in a briefing to me on what will happen with the $168 million committed by the federal government to the McKoy Street–Hume Freeway interchange. Last week the minister confirmed this project is roadkill. What a shock – of course the minister blamed the feds. That is the previous federal government, so you can work that out. But we will go on. She said $210 million, including the $168 million from the Commonwealth and the $42 million from the Victorian state government, is not enough – yet two-and-a-bit years ago it was.

Minister Allan’s correspondence in December 2020 said the extra $104 million from the then coalition government was a result of a preliminary-level assessment of the proposal by Major Road Projects Victoria. The department had done the maths, come up with a figure and I am guessing hoped the feds would end up rejecting it and saying no about the additional funding. Well, certainly I, for one, and the community of the Benambra district are sick of the spin. Now it is a Labor government in the Lodge – your lot, your mob, is in the Lodge. Do not sheet it home that everything is from the previous federal government.

A member interjected.

Bill TILLEY: Enjoy it while you can, and do not bugger it up. Do not sheet it home to the previous federal government; it is not their fault. You have the money. You have a $10 million daily interest bill. You clearly have no money for regional Victoria. As a rural representative, I can see that you have no money for roads anywhere in regional Victoria.

This project is – or should I say was – important to our community. In 2015 you created an 80-kilometre stretch on the Hume Freeway at this intersection because it was too dangerous – an 80-kilometre zone on the main freeway between Sydney and Melbourne that sees 30,000-plus vehicles a day and about 7500 heavy vehicles. Then in 2018 came the plans to build a roundabout. It was a roundabout in name and nature. For a time they called it a Mickey Mouse solution. That is an insult to Disney, of course. It is a dog’s breakfast. It is a technicolour yawn on good road design. Trucks have to cross two lanes of traffic in 80 metres from a standing start if they want to get to the industrial area near McKoy Street. This is an intersection that also sees people going to work and parents taking kids to school. It is a significant intersection. In fact it is a deathtrap. But rather than confronting the problem, you point the finger. You politicise road safety rather than acting responsibly. I have no doubt you will take this money and prop up one of these projects in Melbourne that are already massively over budget. Tell me why you can find money for the city but not for the country. I will tell you why – you do not care. This week we are talking about saving 63 heroin addicts over four years. As of Sunday, 46 people in the state of Victoria have died on rural roads in the first 11 weeks of this year – 10 more than last year.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Yan Yean, I remind all members that the word ‘you’ refers to the Chair.