Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My, how ironic. Today is 12 February 2024, 1,776 days since funding was first announced to fix The Forest Drive and Uralla Road intersections with the Nepean Highway in Mount Martha. In 2015, Bruce Bone was killed in a car crash at the intersection and it started a community wide campaign to get the junction fixed. In 2016, the coalition committed $200,000 for interim safety measures at Forest Drive and, in 2019, the coalition committed $10 million for the upgrade of Forest Drive and Uralla Road. It later doubled the funding to make sure the works would get done.

Since election, I have stood in the chamber five times to plead with Labor, both state and federal, to get these works done. The intersections were given the go-ahead in March 22 by the state Labor government with a commencement date of early 2023, only to be delayed again when this government started its infrastructure review, first for 90 days and then 200. In November I stood here in this chamber and I said:

From here on in, every injury at that corner sits at the government's feet.

Over summer, there were more accidents at these intersections, and 10 days ago I received an email from Ann. Her friend Kevin had just died from the injuries that he sustained in yet another horrific accident at Uralla Road. It is 1,763 days since the funding was announced, 690 days since the Victorian government approved the upgrades and 274 days since the Albanese Labor government further delayed the upgrades within their infrastructure review. His life ended at an intersection that was fully funded for a fix. It's unforgivable. (Time expired)

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