Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (16:44): I am proud to speak on this bill, the Roads, Road Safety and Ports Legislation Amendment Bill 2026. It is a practical bill. It deals with speed enforcement, road declarations, toll road administration, heavy vehicle law, port data, freight movement and operator onus offences. In other words, it deals with the rules that sit behind the way people, goods and services move around Victoria every single day. In my electorate those rules are felt very directly. Our inner northern suburbs are dense, they are highly connected and they are doing a lot of work for the city.
We have High Street, St Georges Road, Bell Street, Heidelberg Road, Station Street, Darebin Road and Normanby Avenue. We have got trains, trams, buses, bikes, school routes, shopping strips, local parks and major arterials all intersecting in a very small geographical area and a geographical area enclosed by waterways. These roads are not just lines on a transport map; they are places people cross with prams and ride along to work and wait beside after school and drive on to care for family and rely on for local business and freight. So when we talk about road safety in this chamber, we are not talking about an abstract system, we are talking about whether a student can get from Thornbury High to the bus stop safely, whether a family in Alphington can get onto the Darebin Creek Trail without being pushed onto Heidelberg Road, whether a pedestrian on St Georges Road has a better chance of avoiding serious harm because the speed limits are appropriate, whether Fairfield Primary kids can cross Wingrove Street between their two campuses safely, whether a bus service is frequent enough to be a real transport option choice at night or whether heavy vehicles are on the right roads and local streets can be local streets. That is why this bill matters.
One of the most significant reforms is the expansion of point-to-point average speed enforcement. Speeding contributes to at least 30 per cent of road fatalities in Victoria and a quarter of serious injuries sustained by light vehicle occupants. That tells us very clearly that if we are serious about reducing road trauma we need a speed enforcement system that is modern, that is fair and that is capable of dealing with the road network as it actually exists. At the moment average speed enforcement can only operate where there is one speed limit between two detection points, but many roads do not work like that. A corridor can move through different speed environments and the law should be able to respond to that, so this bill will allow point-to-point average speed enforcement across a length of road with two or more different speed zones. It is a technical change, but the purpose is pretty straightforward: it encourages safer, steadier driving over high-risk corridors, and it strengthens the tools available to reduce road trauma.
In Northcote we know that speed reform makes a really big difference. On St Georges Road between Northcote and Preston we recently reduced the speed limit from 70 kilometres to 60 kilometres an hour along this hazardous 3-kilometre stretch. Over five years this stretch saw 80 crashes and 22 serious injuries; that is a crash every few weeks and a major injury every three months on one length of road in my community. So lower speeds reduce the likelihood of a collision and reduce the severity if one does occur. That is especially important on roads like St Georges Road, where there are cars, trams, cyclists and pedestrians all interacting and where there are kinder and school facilities. Families have raised really serious concerns with me about it, so I am happy that we have achieved that.
That same evidence-based approach is guiding our work in Thornbury as well. On Normanby Avenue residents have long raised concerns about the speed limit of 60 kilometres an hour there. We have already delivered electronic speed signs that flash during peak school hours, reminding drivers to slow down through the 40-kilometre school zones between St Georges Road and Clapham Street. That was a really practical improvement, and it was secured because residents spoke up and because the road incident data supported action. But I know our community wants a more permanent solution there, so I am working with the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) to advocate for a safer speed environment on Normanby Avenue, including consideration of a further speed reduction there.
The same is true around Thornbury High School. Anyone who has travelled along Station Street near Collins Street at school time understands how complex that environment is. The road carries heavy north–south traffic, students are walking to and from bus stops and there are turning movements, visibility issues, a median, a bend and a crest. There is a lot happening in a very constrained space, and that is why I have been working closely with Thornbury High families, the school, Darebin council and the minister. There has already been a win on Matisi Street, with Darebin council committing to working with Thornbury High to construct a wombat crossing on the other side of the school. That is a positive step in the right direction, but we also need to work through some of those other pressure points. I was pleased to sponsor a petition in the Parliament from local resident Nina Collins, which was tabled with 720 signatures from local residents. It calls for a review of road safety at the intersection of Darebin Road and Wilmoth Street and at Station Street and Collins Street in Thornbury. They are highly active intersections used by students, families, pedestrians, cyclists, bus users and motorists every single day.
The community is asking for a really legitimate thing here, which is carefully assessing the situation, providing those practical improvements and action informed by data and local knowledge. I do welcome that, off the back of some of our advocacy there, DTP has already proposed a 40-kilometre school zone on Station Street at drop-off and pick-up times, recognising that proximity to Thornbury High. We are looking forward to that.
The bill also improves the way we manage new roads once they are open. Road declarations require land acquisition surveys and formal classifications, and sometimes those steps cannot be completed until construction is almost finished. Even though there is pressure to open the road to the public, without a proper declaration there can be uncertainty about who is responsible for inspection, maintenance and liability.
We see the importance of those good processes on projects close to home. In Alphington works are now underway for the Alphington link at Farm Road. This is a major milestone in a longstanding community priority. For years Alphington residents have been cut off from a safe, direct and practical connection to the spectacular Darebin Yarra trail that we built. The new link will deliver a 120-metre shared-use path from Farm Road to the trail, including a raised crossing. It will connect locals to the more than 600 kilometres of walking and cycling routes across Melbourne. That project involved sustained advocacy, community consultation, design work, planning approval, legislative change and land acquisition, and the final design has evolved in response to community consultation. The earlier plan had it as a bridge; now it is a ground-level path, and that will save trees and reduce construction impacts and blend more sensitively into the landscape. It is a really positive local outcome for us.
The broader network matters too. We have got the Eastern Freeway upgrades delivered as part of the North East Link Program. That will provide new traffic management technology, express lanes and Melbourne’s first dedicated express busway. But importantly for the inner north, it also includes new and upgraded walking and cycling connections through Yarra Bend Park, including a new bridge over the Yarra River that we are very excited about.
This bill sits alongside some pretty major investments from the state Labor government in roads. There is a $1 billion investment in the budget to rebuild, repair and resurface roads across the state, $102.6 million for vital road projects to improve safety and reduce congestion and those practical cost-of-living supports, including 20 per cent off vehicle registration for eligible Victorians.
For Northcote that broader program is visible in the work we are doing every day. It is the safer speeds on St Georges Road; the continued advocacy on Normanby Avenue; the practical action around Thornbury High; the Alphington link moving forward into construction; more evening services on the route 508 bus; the North East Link taking pressure off our local roads; and the Eastern Freeway upgrades that include those walking and cycling connections through Yarra Bend Park.
This is what good transport reform looks like. It is not one project, it is not one road or one mode. It is a network, it is safety, it is freight, buses, bikes, walking, enforcement, maintenance and accountability all working together in an integrated system. That is why I support this bill, and I commend it to the house.
