Crumbling roads are costing lives
The Andrews Government is set to repeat history by repeatedly underspending on regional roads to the detriment of local communities, according to The Nationals Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron.
“Labor’s latest catastrophic budget has cut more than $260 million in maintenance funding for an already crumbling network of roads, including in the Valley where notoriously unsafe roads have cost lives,” Mr Cameron said.
“As of today, June 2nd, there have been 135 lives lost on Victorian roads – up a staggering 39 per cent on 2022.
“Yet billions of dollars continue to be splashed on city-centric projects like the Suburban Rail Loop and level crossing removals for road users in metropolitan Melbourne, while regional Victorians are left to traverse roads that are not even fit for use.
“At a time when our roads are falling apart and in need of major investment, we instead have roads maintenance allocation that is at a lower level than it was in 2014/15, and down a whopping 45 per cent on what it was in 2020.
“My electorate, as with all others across regional Victoria, is a patchwork of potholes. Under the guise of “repairs”, the Andrews Government is sending contractors to conduct quick, cheap fixes that just result in the potholes returning a week later.
“This flagrant disregard for the safety of road users is shameful, and the chronic underspending on regional roads at the expense of billion-dollar blowout projects must stop, and it must stop now.
“Victoria is broke, life is getting harder under Labor, and regional Victorians are wearing the real-life cost of its financial incompetence.”