I represent a geographically large electorate which encompasses the East Coast as far south as Denison Beach, through the North-East, skirting around Launceston taking in the areas around Evandale, Perth and Longford to just south of Conara, right across to and including part of Cradle Mountain St Clair National Park, shooting North to pick up some of the Kentish Council area including Railton.

As the elected member for the division of McIntyre travelling around on a regular basis is an important part of my role.

During my travel I experience firsthand the types of unsafe driving techniques due to the inadequate overtaking opportunities throughout Tasmania.

Historically motorists become frustrated when following slow moving vehicles and as a consequence can lead to passing in places that are not necessarily the safest places to do so.

It also contributes to congestion on our road system and impedes on the flow of traffic in the higher traffic areas.

Who knows how many near misses let alone crashes there have been due to overtaking where the line of sight has been limited and the stretch of road not adequate?

Clearly signed and strategically placed lay-bys where slow moving vehicles can safely pull off the roadway and allow other motorists to pass would allow for a much safer and more enjoyable motoring experience.

This should be the aim of any government on behalf of our community and certainly that's what we should be demanding for all road users.

There is so much focus in our state on tourism and we know that many of our visitors come to our state with large mobile homes or caravans towed by SUVs.

It is a fact that our state relies heavily on these visitors to our state and in my view, we should be focusing on the motoring public and what can be done to make our roads safer.

We will never be able to in the short to medium term afford to have all our highways constructed to the same standard as the Midland Highway, so we need to be smart about how we make our roads as safe as we possibly can.

The Great Eastern drive has for some time now been earmarked for works to improve the motoring experience and some of these works have commenced and this is to be commended but what about the hundred plus kilometres from Launceston to the East Coast that would undoubtedly benefit from lay-bys.

I have argued for a number of years now that there are already plenty of informal areas where courteous slow moving vehicles pull over and allow other motorists to overtake.

My view is that these would greatly enhance motorist safety if they were sealed and the usual and effective signage "slow moving vehicle area in 300 metres" placed on the road verges to alert drivers that it will be a safe way to overtake vehicles who need and desire more travelling time.

Perhaps we need to consider multi lingual road signage for visiting motorists, for example Mandarin in the interests of safety on our roads.

Interestingly, a number of years ago there were flashing light signs placed on each end of the approach to the Sideling on the Tasman Highway.

These were large and no doubt expensive signs letting motorists know of heavy vehicles approaching.

To my knowledge these signs rarely operated accurately and now display a sign under them indicating these signs are not working.

Why are they even still there in that case? How often do we see significant dollars spent that do not deliver the benefit that was identified and expected.

I would suggest many of us could name a project that has fallen short of the community's expectation in regard to effectiveness and equally important value for money.

There is a well known saying "if a jobs worth doing, it's worth doing well" as we know if it isn't done right the first time the maintenance will be never ending.

I will continue to raise and lobby for this initiative with government and won't be satisfied until at the very least all our highways have appropriately signed and designated lay-bys.