Helen Haines tells parliament that Victorian government must act on Rutherglen bypass

WATCH: Helen Haines tells parliament that Victorian government must act on Rutherglen bypass

Transcript

00:00 Last Friday, the town of Rutherglen in my electorate of Indi experienced a shocking

00:05 accident right in the centre of town. A B-double truck ploughed into a parked car, knocked

00:11 down a power pole and the veranda of a cafe. This accident demonstrates the serious concerns

00:18 of the Rutherglen community where hundreds of trucks drive through the narrow heritage

00:22 main street of this bustling, beautiful tourist town every single day. It's a miracle that

00:29 no one was injured. Local Herb Ellerbock had only stepped out of his car five minutes earlier.

00:36 The people of Rutherglen have long called for a truck bypass, but this issue has been

00:41 at a standstill for decades. This government dumped plans for the Rutherglen heavy vehicle

00:46 bypass route from the infrastructure pipeline last year after the Victorian government sat

00:51 on their hands and failed to take the concerns of local people seriously. In fact, the Victorian

00:57 government has unspent funds that were meant to be used on this bypass. A petition started

01:03 by Indigo Shire Councillor Roberta Horne calls for the unspent funds to be urgently spent

01:08 on traffic calming measures to increase safety for pedestrians. This government must also

01:14 act to increase funding for rural and regional roads. Our safety depends on it. Rutherglen

01:19 residents have been rattled by trucks rolling through their beautiful town for long enough.

01:24 No community should live in fear of their life by simply walking down their main street.

01:29 [no audio]