CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr WOOD (La Trobe) (16:40): Finally, after years and years of disruption, the Racecourse Road Upgrade in Pakenham is now officially complete. This is a huge win for the more than 20,000 motorists who use this road every day. Local business owners can now get to work more easily, and their customers can once again access businesses along Racecourse Road and Bald Hill Road more easily.

I want to thank the local community who initially signed petitions many years ago when we announced the funding under the former government back in 2019, where we committed, on the recommendation of the local Cardinia council, $70 million for the upgrade. I must say, though, with state Labor, obviously with their friends in the CFMEU, this actually blew out quite dramatically and, sadly, took years and years to complete.

But we got there in the end, and the completed works have delivered some major improvements for Pakenham. The roundabout—and I was there the other day—at Bald Hill Road has now been replaced with new traffic lights, there's an extra lane on Racecourse Road between Peet Street and Azola Drive, and the intersection at Railway Avenue and Campbell Street has also been upgraded with new traffic lights.

Bus access to Pakenham Station has been improved—and, again, that was a former coalition commitment. New walking and shared-use footpaths have been built, making it safer and easier for pedestrians and cyclists and completing the important missing link between Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road and the new Pakenham Station, and there are centre median safety barriers along Racecourse Road between Bald Hill Road and Railway Avenue.

Road construction is the responsibility of the state government, not the federal government. As I was saying before, the prolonged delays put so much pressure on our local businesses. Can I also make the point that we saw the Albanese Labor government divert funding from the Sealing the Hills road project, and all these roads from Cockatoo, Gembrook, Emerald and other locations in Latrobe haven't been sealed.

This also goes across to Yarra Ranges. We committed funding to seal those roads, but, after, I think, eight or nine months of a number of roads being upgraded, the Albanese Labor government diverted that funding to the Suburban Rail Loop. We also had funding for the duplication of Wellington Road, but, again, that was diverted.

The sad aspect of this is that we now have the new premier of Victoria, Ben Carroll, putting the Suburban Rail Loop project on hold simply because of the corruption and waste of money, and, sadly, Latrobe residents suffered when money was diverted from local road projects.