Danny O’Brien – Labor’s budget still failing our roads
Wednesday 8 May 2024
The Allan Labor Government continues to fail Victorian motorists as the shocking state of our roads deteriorates further following a 90 per cent reduction in road repairs this financial year.
The State Budget hides the true state of spending on road maintenance with flood recovery works mixed in with annual maintenance programs, but the road asset management budget is still 16 per cent less next year than it was four years ago.
The Budget papers highlight the depths of Labor’s neglect of our roads, with the area of roads “resurfaced or rehabilitated” in 2023/24 falling a massive 90 per cent across the state. Across regional Victoria, it was 96 per cent.
This comes after Labor failed to meet its road repair targets by 25 per cent last year.
Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, said the budget continues a trend of Labor ignoring the appalling state of our regional and metro roads, while wasting billions in cost over-runs on mega-projects in the city.
“Labor can’t hide behind flood recovery forever because its spending cuts are seeing Victorians face worse and worse road conditions every day.
“Even the Government’s own survey last year rated 91 per cent or roads as ‘poor or very poor’.
“To highlight the failures, Labor has introduced a new budget performance measure of ‘road area patched’ – not fixed, not rebuilt, but ‘patched’. Fixing potholes is not a measure of success, it’s a measure of failure.”
Mr O’Brien said Labor was also reducing performance targets in the Budget papers related to the quality of roads and had dumped measures such as those for roadside barriers and tactile line marking because road safety programs have been cut.
“Labor has failed our roads and this budget does nothing to reverse the damage of successive years of cuts.
“Labor can’t manage money and Victorians are paying the price.”