Victorian government told to get moving on the introduction of the Truck Action Plan, amid accusations it is misleading the community
By Ruza Zivkusic | October 14, 2011
Victorian MP Wade Noonan has called for the state’s government to get moving on the introduction of the Truck Action Plan, while also accusing it of misleading the community.
Speaking in Parliament this week Noonan – whose Williamstown electorate is in Melbourne’s west – claimed Roads Minister Terry Mulder has “distorted the facts” on the plan, which was announced under the previous government.
Referring to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s budget estimates report which was tabled in Parliament in June, Noonan says there are “misleading remarks” made by Mulder in relation to the Truck Action Plan.
“What the minister told the committee is that without the construction of WestLink the Truck Action Plan as a stand-alone project would have no real benefit,” he says.
“But ministerial briefs obtained under freedom of information laws clearly contradict this statement.”
VicRoads Acting Chief Operating Officer George Mavroyeni says traffic analysis shows that the plan will improve traffic flow in residential areas in the inner west, halving the number of trucks by 1 million a year.<
“With popular growth booming in the west and container freight through the port of Melbourne expected to quadruple, the Baillieu government should stop playing games and simply get on with the full construction of this project,” Noonan says.
“The freight industry, residents, local schools, local government, business advocacy groups and early childhood centres in the inner west all support this project…The Baillieu government needs to stop sitting on its hands and start delivering.”
The Opposition and Melbourne residents have continually called for the government to introduce the Truck Action Plan, which was announced as a solution to reducing truck traffic in Melbourne’s inner west.
