Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

():  I rise today to speak about the need for a heavy vehicle bypass for Mildura in Sunraysia in my electorate of Mallee. On Thursday, I hosted the first round table with stakeholders to support a business case to make a Mildura heavy vehicle bypass a reality. Without trucks, Australia stops, and truckies travelling the Sturt Highway between Adelaide and Sydney are crawling through the many traffic lights on Deakin Avenue or through the seven roundabouts in Benetook Avenue Mildura.

A heavy vehicle bypass will make national transport more efficient, demonstrating Mildura's tri-state importance. A strategic heavy vehicle bypass requires a new bridge over the Murray River. It will shorten freight movement between Adelaide and Sydney by an estimated 40 minutes, getting truckies home sooner and under less pressure. Diverting the B-doubles, B-triples and B-quads out of our bustling regional city will also make local roads safer for schoolchildren, locals and tourists who enjoy the hospitality of our fabulous Mildura CBD.

Mildura's heavy vehicle bypass would come at a tiny fraction of the Allan Labor government's '$50 billion Suburban Rail Loop', which has blown out to an estimated total cost, at this point in time, of $96.4 billion. I raise this as a matter of importance.