News

Roads | April 01, 2019

Everyone but Labor acting to fix rural roads

The Nationals Member for Lowan Emma Kealy has welcomed a Federal Liberal Nationals Government announcement that it will provide a huge $2 billion boost to Victorian road funding, with rural and regional roads to take the lions share.

“This funding will fix dangerous intersections, widen bridges and roads and repair potholed highways,” Ms Kealy said.

“On the other hand the first thing Daniel Andrews did when becoming Premier was to scrap the Country Roads and Bridges Program, ripping $160 million from council budgets that was used to upgrade and repair their priority road projects.

“The Victorian Labor Government will be quick to say they’ve created a new bureaucracy to focus on regional roads and increased funding – but regional Victorians are yet to see any results and the work that is completed only lasts a few weeks because of the shambolic mess the road maintenance system is in under Daniel Andrews.

“State Labor will also complain about not getting their fair share of federal funding, but VicRoads annual reports show that money from the Federal Government for road maintenance has increased year-on-year since 2014.”

Recent figures released by the Transport Accident Commission show the road toll in rural Victoria is up 83 per cent on the same time last year.

“Too many people are not making it home,” Ms Kealy said.

“The Federal Government is putting money into programs that are proven to improve road safety and to make sure there is not an empty seat at the dinner table. 

“Actions speak louder than words and it’s the Liberal Nationals who have been acting, delivering increased funding year on year to fix our most dangerous roads while Daniel Andrews has played the blame game and had his focus fixed on the city.”