Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (17:54): I rise to make a contribution on the Roads, Road Safety and Ports Legislation Amendment Bill 2026. The bill includes road safety enforcement, freight and port operations, toll road administration, emergency services fatigue exemptions and road management powers. We are not opposing this bill and welcome road safety measures, but we also know that there is so much more that is not here in front of us in this bill today.
This legislation aims to improve road safety outcomes and increase efficiency and modernise transport management. One of the key amendments contained in this bill is around the Road Safety Act 1986, to which it introduces amendments and formulas to enable point-to-point average speed camera enforcement across multiple speed limit zones and across more than one road or network of roads.
Most drivers often see these cameras on the Hume Freeway and the Peninsula Link. I often see drivers hit their brakes when they see the cameras, not understanding the way that they work. We know that speed kills, and any measures to reduce speeding behaviour are welcomed-
The road toll in Victoria remains deeply concerning. In 2025, 290 people lost their lives on Victorian roads, an increase on the previous year, with rural and regional Victoria accounting for 156 of those fatalities. Regional roads continue to carry a disproportionate burden of road trauma despite lower population density. The TAC statistics also show that regional municipalities continue to be among the hardest hit areas in the state. The Moira shire recorded one of the highest road tolls in regional Victoria, highlighting the ongoing challenges faced across the broader Goulburn Valley region. The GV road safety group and local stakeholders have repeatedly raised concerns about the rising road toll in our region and the urgent need for greater investment in prevention, education and safer road design and to also address the appalling and unsafe condition of our roads and intersections. Communities continue to raise concerns about the appalling, unsafe conditions of our roads, which are crumbling and full of potholes, and road maintenance delays and their fear of the dangerous road network they face every single day.
Today this government has announced funding for roads, labelling it a roads blitz once again. The government’s failure and neglect for many years have led to the appalling and unsafe condition of our roads. The suggestion to fix 200,000 potholes is astounding – to think that there are even that many, but we know there are possibly even more. But road repairs are more than just fixing potholes. The other question is: will the quality of works be done to a standard that will last and not begin to deteriorate in a short period of time, not just the patch-up jobs that we have constantly seen? We need the roads fixed correctly and for the long term. Patching up potholes and dodgy works are not the long-term solution to maintaining and repairing our roads.
Wherever you might travel right across Victoria the roads are deplorable. This government has failed to support critical road safety upgrades in the Moira shire and the Greater Shepparton region for some of our most dangerous roads and intersections, which have had numerous fatalities. The Barmah-Shepparton Road intersection is in desperate need of an upgrade and a known black spot location on a major arterial road, recording five separate casualty crashes in the last five years. Most accidents have been related to a failure to give way, and it is proposed that the upgrade will prevent speeding through the intersection. This is a $2 million upgrade. The Numurkah Road–Naring Road–Tocumwal Road intersection is another dangerous intersection, and Department of Transport and Planning safety analysis has identified this intersection as Moira shire’s highest transport infrastructure risk. It is a known black spot risk. Serious casualty crashes have been recorded in the past three years. We are not talking billions of dollars for these projects. We are talking money invested to save lives – lives that will continue to be lost at these dangerous intersections.
I see we have the new Minister for Roads and Road Safety at the table today, and I would welcome the minister to come out to my region and see firsthand some of the roads that I am talking about and some of these dangerous intersections. I met with Moira shire just last week in regard to these roads. They are constantly advocating, along with the Greater Shepparton City Council, to upgrade their roads for the safety of their communities. There are so many roads in my electorate. There are many others than just these two that I have mentioned. Council have an extensive list. To show you the level of neglect, there are nine here on my list, but just to name a couple: River Road, Kialla, $15 million; Ford Road, $7 million – the Shepparton alternate route; and Congupna, $20 million. They are not billions of dollars of projects. These are roads that desperately need safety upgrades, which have been neglected.
I do not think many on that side of the house truly understand the regional road network that we have to use every single day, because it is very different. I travel constantly between my small towns on back rural roads, and these are known to be dangerous. Navigating narrow backroads are trucks, vehicles and other users. As our region continues to grow, so does the pressure on the local and broader road network. I have mentioned in this place before the incredible volume of truck transport movement, with 25 per cent of the state’s trucks registered in my region. We must have an adequate, safe and fit-for-purpose road network. Today my electorate is still facing the same unsafe road networks and intersections and the very high risk of more fatalities without the government’s investment.
It is not just major highways where we need to address speeding. As I have said, the regions have alarming statistics when it comes to the road toll. I wish to acknowledge my friend Sharon O’Dwyer, who lost her 26-year-old son Matthew in a car accident a few years ago. It was so devastating, as you can imagine – a wonderful young man’s life cut short too soon and a grieving family who will never get over it. Sharon has become a passionate advocate and spokesperson for road safety and has spoken at many community events, sharing her experience and the need for young drivers to be aware of the dangers when driving and how, like her son Matthew, their life can be taken away in an instant.
Sharon does not want other families to go through what her family has gone through, but we also know that there are so many others who are impacted each and every day by road trauma whose lives and those of their loved ones are changed forever.
We all know that road safety is not simply about addressing enforcement; it is also about creating a road network that is safe, reliable and fit for purpose for every road user. Road safety policy should always be focused on saving lives and reducing the alarming road toll outcomes. Road safety is not achieved through cameras and compliance alone. It requires investment in safer roads and intersections, road maintenance, better lighting, clearer signage, improved line marking, stronger maintenance programs and roads capable of handling increasing freight and heavy vehicle movements safely. It requires investment in public transport and freight efficiency, and it requires government to listen to communities raising concerns long before tragedies occur.
Regional communities should not have to accept a lower standard of road safety whilst this government focus on their citycentric spending, billions of dollars in waste, cost blowouts and financial mismanagement. The $15 billion blown in rorts on Big Build sites should have gone to fixing and maintaining the dangerous roads and intersections that I have just mentioned in my electorate, which have been neglected for far too long, and also put into our hospitals, sporting facilities, critical services and infrastructure. Labor can no longer fool the people. Victorians simply do not trust or believe you, and they want to know where their $15 billion has gone, as do I. And there is the $600 million loss to the Commonwealth Games and nothing to show for that money. The financial mismanagement of this government is just appalling. As we stand here on budget day, nothing has changed, and the significant debt will continue to impact all Victorians and my electorate.
Wherever you might travel on our roads right across regional Victoria, as we have said, they are deplorable. I will finish off by saying I jumped in a truck with one of our local truck drivers, who wanted me to experience the impact on his vehicle every single day and what he was having to navigate. It was actually unbelievable. The driver has a special seat that assists with the impact, but the passenger seat does not, and I was thrown around and shaken around. The appalling condition of our roads is very real. That same driver raised the enormous costs in repairs that his company has experienced, and it has been in the thousands of dollars every single month. This government has allowed our roads to get to the condition that they are in today. It is astounding that this government think that the past level of neglect can just be ignored. It is because of their neglect that we are faced with enormous amounts of crumbling and unsafe roads and damage to vehicles. So many of my constituents have had to pay hundreds of dollars in repairs that they cannot afford. They are angry and they can see through Labor’s spin because it is happening time and time again: big promises and failure to deliver.
I hope I get to speak on the budget, as there is so much in my region that is being neglected by this government, and it is simply wrong. We do not have adequate public bus transport services. We have small towns that have limited or no bus services and parts of Shepparton where you cannot get a bus. There is so much more that I will share, and I look forward to responding to the budget. But coming back to the bill in the few minutes that I have, we do know that there is so much more that needs to be done. As we said, we welcome road safety measures, but we also want to see this government invest where it is needed. If they are serious about investing in road safety, those intersections that I have referred to today where lives have been lost should have been invested in, and they have not been. We have many roads. We have many drivers trying to navigate regional roads, and it is dangerous. It is time for this government now to step up and fix the roads. That will make a difference and save lives.