Tuesday, 8 September 2026

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (00:01): (2783) My adjournment is to the Premier, and it concerns the shocking state of our roads. We have seen the Premier’s $372 million announcement. All of a sudden he has reached under the couch and found the money. And how did he pay for this? Three level crossing removals delayed. All three of them just happen to be in one Liberal electorate. He could not pick a Labor one to delay a level crossing in. The three of them had to be in one Liberal electorate, just like they have got 13 activity centres in one electorate in Malvern. So he has found some money for this, and I have got a bit of advice for the Premier: potholes are a bit like botox, because there is only so much you can patch over them. Eventually you have got to wait four to six months before you have to patch them up again.

What you really need is a real plan to resurface our roads, and only the Liberals and Nationals have a $5 billion plan to resurface and maintain our roads – a 25 per cent increase in current spending. We will establish Better Roads Victoria as a standalone division in the Department of Transport and Planning. Has the Premier even seen the potholes on Keilor Road? Clearly he has not, because they are out of control. This is a main arterial road in his own electorate. Well, do you know who has got a plan to fix it? My good friend Samantha Byrne, the Liberal candidate for Niddrie, who has consistently advocated on these issues.

I will just go to another part of this policy. We saw the Premier come out with a bizarre plan that minimum security prisoners would be involved in some pilot trial to also repair our roads. Could you imagine? Take a moment to imagine the screeching from the other side, from down at Trades Hall, from Luke Hilakari talking about chain gangs. You know, Mr Erdogan, this is exactly the line that would be blasted out on the TV screens and in the newspapers from Luke Hilakari and from those opposite if we had come up with this idea. This is a Premier who is desperate, who when he was Minister for Roads and Road Safety cut $214 million from roads. Now he wants to pretend like he is acting on potholes. So the action I seek from the minister is to follow the lead of the Liberals and Nationals policy.