Host Ali Moore: Kristy McBain is the Minister for Emergency Management and the Minister for Regional Development. Kristy McBain, welcome to Drive.

Minister Kristy McBain: Good afternoon. Thanks for having me.

Moore: Before we get to Black Spots, because this is a very big storey that we're talking about this afternoon. The homophobic slur Lance Collard and the reasoning of the appeal board. I'm curious, as a federal politician, what do you make of it being said to be commonplace that we have racist, sexist or homophobic language on the field?

McBain: The reasoning's pretty shocking when you hear it. I mean, it would be unacceptable for a federal politician, unacceptable for a business leader, and it should be unacceptable for a sports star - just because of the nature of their work being highly competitive or under pressure - to be able to use language that the rest of us would be in trouble for. So I think that reasoning doesn't really stand up to much scrutiny.

Moore: So, $48 million in black spot funding for Victoria, where are the most important, in your view?

McBain: Obviously our road Black Spot Program is incredibly important. It's really important because community members and councils can nominate those road Black Spot programs. They can identify those and put them through to the Federal Government. The road Black Spot convener in Victoria is the member for Corangamite, Libby Coker, but we have committed in this round $48 million to address safety at 60 locations across Victoria. Everything from traffic lights and safety barriers to pedestrian crossings and roundabouts where several crashes have occurred, or are at risk of occurring.

Moore: The Daylesford upgrade, which our news has been talking about today, that, of course, being where three adults and two children died in 2023. Can you sort of explain what the funding will do there?

McBain: A range of the funding is working on a whole bunch of different things. There are site-specific issues across a range of those areas. In Daylesford, it will deliver an intersection reorientation, there'll be some lighting improvements, pedestrian separation and installation of raised priority crossings. We know that some of these areas have been the place of some tragic outcomes. So, making sure that we're working with local communities to understand what needs to be done to improve safety is really important. On the Princess highway at Club Terrace, over to $2.7 million to install safety barriers, shoulder sealing, warning signs and curve alignment markers, because we know that stretch of road is particularly lonely when you are driving and is in the middle of some pretty dense forested areas. So, it's really important we can improve safety where we need to.

Moore: You're listening to Kristy McBain, who's the Minister for Emergency Management. And we're talking about the funding for black spot improvements in the state. Kristy McBain, you did say that people can nominate black spots. There's a black spot consultative panel. But how does the process work? I mean, you know, if I contact the panel and I say, you know, this is a really big problem area, how do you make the analysis of what gets funding and what doesn't?

McBain: Yes. So, it obviously goes through our Department of Infrastructure and Transport. All of those nominations are collated and then we seek some data and information from state and local councils about that particular area and what might need to be done. We then run it through a range of processes to understand where we can make the biggest difference from the investment of dollars. Those projects are put to that consultative panel and they can make some suggestions on those as well. So, you know, we use a lot of the data and the evidence from crash or near misses, that state government and local councils collect.

Moore: So, the 60 locations that this funding targets, how many more do you think are also in need of repair but haven't been targeted so far?

McBain: We've increased the funding nationwide for this program. It's now $150 million a year. We're doing the Victorian announcement now, but next year in the same program, we'll look at what we target there. And sometimes there are themes of particular issues, and obviously we're looking at a range of pedestrian themes in parts of this program, but also a range of safety barriers and rumble strips to make sure that we're keeping people awake on those long stretches of road as well. So, there may be particular themes, but this funding is baked into our budget because we know how important it is to deal with road safety issues.

Moore: Just before I let you go, you've also announced that you've extended some of the bushfire recovery funds to two other areas. There's a small rural community of Lesley Manor, that's in Corangamite, and then Woodfield in Mansfield. There's a whole lot of other areas that have already got access to some of, I think this is the thousand dollar emergency payment as a result of the bushfires. Is that, I mean, we're sort of months down the track now and I know there's still recovery going on, but is that the end of that federal funding?

McBain: So, there are a number of locations where the disaster recovery payment has now been activated, 68 across Victoria. We have extended the financial assistance to these two areas because we've now had formal assessments take place. Sometimes the process can be a little bit longer than we anticipate, but nevertheless, the incident has occurred and people have been directly impacted. So, where we can, we extend those Australian Government disaster recovery payments to those areas that need it most?

Moore: Minister, thank you very much for talking to us.

McBain: Great to be with you.