Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion to correct a bit of the mis- and disinformation that has been put forward by members of the opposition. I do so with a heavy heart because, when we talk about roads funding, it's an issue that shouldn't be politicised. It should be an issue that we can find common ground on because, without maintaining a good road system, we know the consequences of what happens on our roads. Far too many lives are lost in Australia due to road accident or injury, so this is an issue that should be above politics. This is an issue where we should be finding common ground.

A few facts to remind those opposite. It was a former coalition government that froze roads maintenance funding for our national highways at $350 million per year for over nearly a decade. That caused a deterioration of our freight roads. They are in here talking about how they were going to put a billion dollars in. On my calculation, that's still $2 billion short of what they ripped out of our national roads program for key freight roads. That's just key freight roads. They also froze the indexation to local governments' financial assistance grants. That's a billion dollars taken away from local councils, permanently lowering their funding base from the federal government, capping their ability to apply for roads programs, like Black Spots funding, Road to Recovery funding.

I used to chair the Victorian Black Spot Program, which is federally funded, delivered through the state government of Victoria. The biggest feedback that we got from local small shires is they didn't have the staff to do the paperwork required to apply for this competitive grant. That directly goes back to one of the former government did by freezing the grants for the financial assistance. The Liberals and Nationals also come in here and rant and complain about our decision to extend their program, the LCR program, until June 2025. If they had been re-elected that would have ended in 2023-24. It is just crocodile tears from those opposite, who are taking no responsibility for what they did in government.

I was here when the current PM, the then shadow minister for transport and regional development, fixed the debacle of those opposite over fuel excise. The government of those opposite started to collect it before it had gone through the parliament. This was when they chose to increase fuel excise, not when they chose to freeze it. Then what were we to do with all this money they never should have collected? It was our side that suggested to them to put it into the Roads to Recovery funding program, welcomed by local government, which fixed more roads. We didn't stop there.

In government we have more than doubled the Roads to Recovery Program. It means that, for my electorate, a rural electorate, we are seeing our Roads to Recovery funding go from $22 million under those opposite to $52 million. That is the difference that we have made to local councils fixing local roads in my electorate, and it does not stop there. The road that connects Mildura in the member for Mallee's electorate to Melbourne via my electorate, the Calder Highway, is receiving $12.5 million to improve overtaking lanes. That's just one of the many projects being funded along the Calder. There is also $300 million to upgrade Calder Park Drive, which is not in my electorate but is the gateway to Melbourne, the main access point for people in Bendigo accessing Melbourne via road; $5 million for pedestrians and safer roads; $4.4 for project development and preconstruction—more work on the Calder Melbourne to Mildura; more funding through rPPP for Mount Alexander to redevelop Frederick Lane and Mechanics Lane; funding through the Black Spot Program and others.

I speak to this motion with a heavy heart and frustration. On Friday a school in my electorate closed to remember the tragic death and passing of a young Tom Hoskings, who was another victim of road trauma. He was trying to cross the road, was hit by a truck and died. I say to those opposite: every death, we remember. Every death is one too many on our roads. Do not politicise this issue. Work to find constructive solutions because there is a real consequence of not taking this issue seriously.

See this speech in context