Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have with me today a folder that contains 10 letters I've written to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government over the past two years. Unbelievably, I had to write to this minister seven times to even get one response. Since then she has refused to engage with me or my constituents on issues of road safety and infrastructure investment. None of the letters are political; all of the letters have been constructive and have sought information on how my community could work with the minister to deliver transport infrastructure improvements primarily related to the Princes Highway corridor. We have been ignored.

The contempt shown by this minister and her department is something I've never seen in 16 years as the member for Gippsland. Basic questions about the amount of headroom remaining in the Princes Highway corridor program, progress reports on individual projects which have been waiting for more than three years to start work and how we can help identify priority projects going forward have all been ignored by this minister. Fancy that, a local MP having the audacity to write to a minister and offering some local input into strategic roadworks in his electorate! Obviously, the last thing the Canberra bureaucrats want is input from people who drive the roads of Gippsland on a daily basis.

This would be a joke, it would be a funny episode of Utopia, if it weren't so serious. People are being killed and injured on the Princes Highway while the bureaucrats and this incompetent minister sit on money that was allocated to Victoria five years ago. We heard in estimates last night that $156 million remains in the Princes Highway corridor allocation, but the hapless bureaucrats couldn't even give basic information on when projects would actually start work. Investing in better infrastructure in our regional communities, better transport infrastructure, improves connectivity for vehicles moving through the region, and obviously improves safety for the local community.

This minister has wasted more than 200 days on a review that she said would take 90 days and, since then, has announced that all future projects would require 50-50 funding, which is another cut for regional Victorian road projects. The state government has actually cut road maintenance funding, and the federal government is not providing any new money for capital works, so the Princes Highway is falling into a dangerous state of disrepair. After two years in office, this minister has not funded a single transport project in Gippsland to date and she can't even be bothered responding to letters on behalf of everyday Australians. It's a hopeless minister and divided and distracted government.

For clarity, prior to starting my speech today I was not aware that the previous member had more to say. There was a misunderstanding, I think, between both you and me, Deputy Speaker Payne. When you called me, she still had 10 seconds remaining. I wasn't aware that she had more to say in that speech. So I do apologise to the former speaker in relation to that misunderstanding. I thank you for giving me the call, but there was a genuine misunderstanding between me and the previous speaker.