Roads collapse under budget cuts and regional Victorians pay
Revelations in the media today that there will be virtually no Victorian road resurfacing program this financial year are an indictment on the Andrews Government’s continuing financial mismanagement.
Victorians are well aware that our roads have deteriorated dramatically in the past few years and regional Victoria, in particular, is bearing the brunt of repeated roads budget cuts and neglect from the Government.
Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, said a 45 per cent cut to the roads maintenance budget since 2020, including a further 25 per cent cut in this year’s budget was hurting Victorian motorists.
“The report today that no contracts for road resurfacing have gone to tender this year should ring alarm bells for all Victorians. Without a resurfacing and resealing program, the deterioration of our roads will only accelerate,” Mr O’Brien said.
“We know our roads are in a dire state, especially after the floods last year, yet the Andrews Labor Government is cutting road maintenance, not increasing it. It beggars belief.”
Mr O’Brien said it was no surprise that country people were taking matters into their own hands and spray-painting messages to “fix our roads” on to badly potholed road sections.
“I recently saw such graffiti on a road in northern Victoria and bizarrely a reference to VicRoads had been crudely blacked over but the road itself hadn’t been fixed. It seems the Government is more interested in public relations than doing its job.”
“The budget papers released in May listed the road area to be resurfaced across metropolitan and regional Victoria as “tbc”. Maybe they just meant ‘terribly bad condition’.”