GRIEVANCE DEBATE

Mr WOOD (La Trobe) (12:31): As we all know and all expect, Australia has good roads—roads where there are no potholes, roads which are well maintained and roads which are safe for people to use. In the south-east of La Trobe, we're covered by the Dandenong Ranges, and, in areas such as Gembrook, Cockatoo and Emerald, the basic requirement of having a sealed road often isn't met.

It's very tough for residents—driving along and hitting a pothole or driving on a dirt road in wet conditions where you can go around the corner in gravel and lose control. Sadly, over the years, there have been a lot of young people in particular who haven't known the road conditions, especially driving on gravel roads and unsealed roads. It's a lot more dangerous than driving on a normal road.

Over the years, the residents, especially in Cockatoo and Gembrook, got sick and tired of not having that basic requirement of sealed roads, so they set up a group called CRAG21. They worked with Cardinia Shire Council to put up a proposal—this was a very small proposal; it was only a few million dollars—to start to get some of the roads sealed. On a more important issue, when it comes to the sealing of these roads—for those who may recall, back in 1983 we had the Ash Wednesday bushfires, which devastated areas of La Trobe—in Beaconsfield Upper, tragically, 12 CFA firefighters lost their lives.

Cockatoo and Gembrook were hit extremely hard. People may not be aware of this, but when you're driving along and smoke basically gets so thick you can't really see where you're going, and you only have some basic image of the road in front of you and you have a channel on the side of the road that can be up to a metre deep in parts where water has washed the earth away, it becomes exceptionally dangerous.

Back in 2019, under the former Liberal government, we secured a massive package of $300 million. Of that, $150 million went to Yarra Ranges Council and $150 million went to Cardinia to seal 110 kilometres of dirt road, covering 164 local streets. It was something that their locals were very excited about and had waited many years for.

When it comes to fairness, in my electorate and all across the country, there are greenfield sites where people expect to have sealed roads as a matter of course when they move in, but because residents here moved in many years ago, they don't get that luxury. In fact, the Cardinia council estimated that sealing the roads would take another 80 years. We made that announcement.

It wasn't an election commitment—we put it in the budget to make sure it would actually occur—and instead of 164 roads being sealed, only 38 were sealed. The only reason was that, when the Albanese Labor government was first elected in 2022, they cut the funding. They didn't advise or have any consultation with residents.

They simply cut the funding. This, obviously, very much upset the local residents who were in play with the special road scheme. Cardinia council and Yarra Ranges council had notified the residents, taken surveys and done a lot of work on this, and it ripped the guts out of those people who were waiting for the roads to be sealed—at the very least, to not have to wash their cars every weekend because of the dust.

At the very worst, when we get a natural disaster, especially bushfire, it makes it extremely dangerous. Where did the road funding disappear to? I think maybe $50 million, in total, had been spent on Cardinia and a similar amount—I think it was $40 million—on Yarra Ranges.

The remainder was moved by the Albanese Labor government to go over to the Suburban Rail Loop. As we know, there has never been a business case for the Suburban Rail Loop. In fact, the Labor government put in $2 billion of taxpayer funded road projects across Victoria.

Obviously they just targeted Liberal seats and people they perceive as Liberal voters. I note the unfairness, especially in those areas up in Cockatoo and Gembrook; I've never won a polling booth up there. It's about doing the right thing for the community, and, sadly, it was ripped away from them.

When we look at the Suburban Rail Loop, huge questions are being asked about that. We're seeing the Allan Labor state government, in need of more money to stump up for that project, now looking at business taxes and land taxes. Again—and I give all credit to Senator Bridget McKenzie, who is looking after infrastructure projects, and also Aaron Violi, the member for Casey—we pursued this because we needed to have certainty again for the local residents.

We felt so bad about the money being ripped out of their hands, knowing this money was going to be delivered under the Liberal government. We recommitted at the last federal election, and guess what? I don't know how many times I called on state Labor candidate Jeff Springfield to match us.

Off the subject, he's a helluva nice guy, but he couldn't come up with the match. I still say to the Albanese government: you've done the wrong thing by the residents, who deserve to have their roads sealed. What other road project, locally, was the funding cut from?

It was Wellington Road. For those who don't know, we had council proposals from Cardinia, Knox, Casey and the Yarra Ranges—this is going back to 2019—all putting forward the need for the road to be duplicated. It's a very dangerous road.

There have been a number of fatalities there over the years. Bill Shorten, when he was the leader of the Labor Party, came out during the election campaign and committed that they would honour the funding for Wellington Road. Wellington Road is a very dangerous road even on a good day, if people are overtaking, and there have been a number of fatalities.

Worse still, if there is a fire up in Cockatoo, Gembrook, Emerald and those areas, the road is one of the major evacuation points for those residents. As we've seen before when it comes to fires, when trees fall down on the road or when motorists are driving along and they lose control and there's a crash, one lane wouldn't be getting too many people driving towards the hills.

For those leaving, if there are more lanes—and I remember when the CFA put in letters of support for that—it becomes a lot safer for local residents to evacuate in an emergency. A few years back we had the Bunyip fires up near Gembrook, and we were very lucky that the wind didn't go towards the west. If the wind had taken off, we would have had a major fire up there and residents would have been evacuating mainly via Wellington Road.

This is an area I've been very passionate about. I lived on an unsealed road for many years myself. It really impacts residents in Beaconsfield Upper; as I've said before, that place has had awful tragedies when it comes to bushfires.

Cockatoo, Emerald, Gembrook, Guys Hill, Mount Burnett, Nar Nar Goon North and even Officer in Pakenham Upper—all residents deserve to be treated equally. Under the Albanese Labor government, everyone is equal but some are more equal than others. Those supporting the Suburban Rail Loop got great support.

Other residents, who just want the basics—to have a road sealed so they don't have to drive through potholes and dust—missed out. I'll keep fighting, and I know the member for Casey, Aaron Violi, will keep fighting, because it is the right thing to do. It's sad that this money was simply cut away; it was budgeted to go into the white elephant, the Suburban Rail Loop, which I think the Albanese government now realises is a white elephant.

It's a disgrace that money was moved away from La Trobe residents, who just want their roads sealed, to the Suburban Rail Loop.